Religion and Politics

I remember the saying, "Don't talk about religion or politics with friends." This wasn't spoken during a teaching moment while our family was gathered around the dinner table.  It wasn't stated with our family all gathered around the TV when Nixon was resigning.  It wasn't even the stuff of conversation with us when we were on one of our long road trips between Illinois and Maine.  It was something I overheard someone say while my parents had friends over to drink and play cards at the dining room table.  It wasn't necessarily meant for my ears, but you know how children hear everything.  It's a voice I hear regularly in my head when I run through "Rules to live by in polite society."

Hogwash.  I hear that and I know why our country is trashed.  Too many in my parents and their parents generation didn't talk on these topics.  They buried their head in the sandbox and decided that the political questions and concerns were too contentious and made pinochle games and coffee clatches too uncomfortable.  Would that we instead just talk about Joe's fight with his wife, or Ed the bar owner falling down the stairs and never being quite the same again.

It is quite possible that those who spoke that night, and those who've said it over the years, had very valid reasons.  Looking at where I am today, I wonder about those who went before me.  Maybe they tried to be involved but burned out because it seemed hopeless, or because they were doing more than their share of the work.  I can understand that.  Did they run into a mini political culture within the campaigns they worked?  I get that.  I've worked for ten years, but today find myself throwing my hands in the air.  It seems too far gone.  Let the 30 somethings with the energy have a go at it...

Yikes, am I any different than the generations that came before me?