AmazonMidwife

(This entry got a bit hijacked by one of those Palin scandals. The events described take place right after the end of the Democratic Convention.)

I must disclose that this is the first time ever that I've watched any part of a convention. (Yes, I've shirked my political duties, mea culpa.) And, while I'm confessing, I only watched the 'big' speeches of the Democratic convention. But they energized me and gave me enough confidence that I thought I'd try to open a dialogue with my siblings, all of whom vote Republican as far as I know. I thought I'd start by telling them that I wanted to do a blog interview with people who were voting for McCain, to inform all the folks on the 'blue islands' what people in the red areas were thinking. This would give me a chance to really listen and for my siblings to know that they would be heard, which IMLTHO, is the key to any good communication.

So I called one of my siblings (who wishes not to be identified, thus weird pronouns to follow. But I will say that it's a different sibling than the one from this entry, so you'd have a 33% chance of being right if you guessed.) Anyway, I gave shem the spiel and much to my surprise, s/he said, "I don't know if I'm voting for McCain."

I tell you, I had to sit down 'cause the room was arockin'! In the past, I would have to say that this is the sibling least likely to have an independent political opinion, because s/he didn't choose to spend much time to educate hirself on the issues. S/he takes many of hes cues from hes spouse, in-laws and conservative community. I wanted to, but didn't pursue whether the change was in hes thinking or in hes community lest it cast aspersions on hes decisions and shut down the dialogue before it had really begun. And I'm torn on which to hope for more: the selfish hope that my sibling is evincing some independent political opinions, or that hes community is evolving.

After I recovered, I told shem that I was surprised by this and was interested in hes thinking. S/he said that s/he was disappointed in McCain's VP pick, that s/he thought that Palin wouldn't be tough on defense and didn't have enough experience. S/he then brought up the "Obama is the antichrist" meme and then meandered into "the illuminati control everything, so it doesn't matter what I do anyway."

At that point, I decided it was time to intervene. Using my 'I statements' it went something like this: " You know, I can't base my vote on some interpretation of a religious text or a conspiracy theory (much as I like conspiracy theories). Either one of those takes away my power to act and makes me a pawn which would play right into the Illuminati or the X-treme Xtian worldview. And that's not how I'm gonna see myself---as a serf or a cog in their machine. That would mean that whoever 'they' are, I'd be letting them win.

We do have power; we can vote with our feet and we can vote with our dollars. Look what's happened in 10 years with the organic food movement! Think about how that affects the environment as well as getting people to think about sustainable agriculture and the simple living movement! How many more people do you know who are homeschooling? One can say 'baby steps' or 'think globally, act locally' but it still adds up to "YES, WE CAN!"

I was, of course, pacing around the house and waving my hands like a lunatic by this time. But instead of the usual "you're crazy/you don't live in the real world" response that I get from my family, s/he said, "You should write a book." Got hope? I do. More every day.