The First.

Famous first words for a blog go a little something like this...


"This is my first blog, and I don't know what I am doing, so bear with me until I figure it out."


Sound familiar? Well, those famous first words are a cliche come true for me. This IS my first blog and as of right now I don't like the layout, the font is alright, and I am a little unsure who will ever read the damn thing, but here goes. Feet first.


The idea for this blog has evolved from one about my friendships (inspired by Girl Gone Real), to another about saving the written word from extinction (more on that later), to a forum where I garblepuke whatever is on my mind. It will probably have a political slant, some personal insight, and maybe a cuss word here and there. I am a venter, a thinker, a TALKer, and now, a blogger. Weird.


Today I am thinking about populism and death. Populism because of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama and death because, well, everyone is dying this week, which is fairly true of every week, but if you watch TV or read the interwebs, most especially this week. Being that it is a Friday, every major news outlet has posted a re-cap of the week, and as I read through what has happened, that sinking feeling from last week returns. And I thought I got rid of it. Dammit.

Let me back up. Last week I lost all faith in humanity. That's not true. Not really ALL of humanity, but at least MOST of humanity in this little conservative state in which I live. And when I say "conservative state," I mean "Idaho." A LOT of the people who live here are very conservative and I am very not. But, because the prevailing attitude is NObama and YESarah, some people here assume that when having a casual conversation with others, those others are also conservatives. So stuff comes out. True, unsuspecting, faith-in-humanity-killing stuff. This happened to me last week. Some people I know were talking about health care and of course SOCIALISM in front of this blue girl living in a red state. They assumed, naturally, that I am just as afraid of the downfall of our society at the hands of our new president as they are, so they spoke "freely." I am convinced that had they truly known me, they would have censored their comments a bit. Or at least held back a few. But maybe I just tell myself that to help me sleep at night. Anyway, here are the highlights of the stuff that came out:

"I don't understand why all of the sudden people feel like they need medical care. If I have a cough I don't go to the doctor. I do what I have to do at my house and get over it."

"I don't want people who are 20-30 years old receiving the same medical benefits that I have worked 50 years for."

"I just think this whole 'woe-is-me' attitude these people have is just like those people in New Orleans holding their heads down and their hands out for money." (That one made me almost go through the roof. MY GOD.)

"Socialized medicine doesn't work anywhere in the world. Why would we want it?"

"This new socialism is going to drive out all the private insurance companies and they have no other place to go."

"If somebody wants medical insurance, they should just go out and buy it, like I did. If you can't afford it, tough."

Soo...basically, there are people who exist who I know who think that people who are poor or who have pre-existing conditions and cannot get affordable insurance should just "tough it out." Tough out cancer. Gooooood luck. When I tried my best to be respectful, citing my experience with Hurricane Katrina victims for instance, and explaining the highlights of medical care in countries like Canada and the UK, for another, they got this deer-in-the-headlights look on their faces. Ruh roh raggy. She's not one of us. And I thought, these people represent 80% of my state. And despair set in. Now, I am not going to argue my version of the Obama health care plan. I am not going to tell you about my experiences in New Orleans, or how I reacted to Michael Moore's Sicko. The point I am making in this virgin post is that it seems the compassion has left the building. And it took my faith in humanity with it.

So this week, when everybody was dying, or were at least being recognized for having died, I noticed the same sort of unsympathetic undertones. Steve McNair was murdered by his mistress and many of the media commentary I saw were hedging their "sympathy" because McNair was having an affair. Blogs and comments posted to articles about McNair's death were riddled with lines like "he deserved what he got." I didn't know Steve McNair, but I must admit I am a little shocked that people are so incredibly rude about his circumstance. Sheesh.

Also, my boyfriend this week received a wicked email entitled "Jose v. Joe" about how illegal immigrants are living the high life off of Joe Fucking SixPack, while Joe has to pay for his kids' lunches and the dentist. Again, without going into the details of the email (google it), its content reminded me of the lack of compassion for anyone who is down on their luck, or dead, or foreign, or gay (don't get me started), or compassionate. Which is especially strange since we are all down on our luck right now.

So, faith dashed, I read through more of the week's news re-cap and came upon articles about Sarah Palin stepping down. I noticed a lot of heart-felt sympathy and compassion exerted towards a woman who had been attacked by the media and hounded by litigants. And right there, I just about gave up. The same people who have no compassion for those without health care are just fucking OUTRAGED at the treatment of Alaska's governor. Poor Sarah Palin. The media hates her and now she must quit her job (in a time when jobless rates are sky-high) in order to pursue a higher calling and make millions of dollars raising money, signing book deals and avoiding lawsuits. Must be rough.

Maybe it all comes down to a beauty contest. Conservatives care a lot about Sarah Palin because she is popular amongst their base, and ironically, NOT very compassionate. Unfortunately for them, it isn't very popular to be a murdered adulteror, a cancer victim without insurance, a Katrina victim without a house, or an illegal immigrant without a country. I will be the first to admit I am a "bleeding heart" liberal because I care a lot about people dying (even when they like to screw around or can't afford to pay for private insurance). I don't particularly care about Sarah Palin because she is an idiot. Even though she is a popular one. The real question is, what can I do about the lack of compassion that troubles me so? I guess I will do what everyone else is doing (and no, it is not TWEETING) -- I'll blog. :)