A request

Dear readers,

Family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, and whoever may happen to read my blog,

You are wonderful.

Really. You are paragons of reason and moderation in a shockingly immoderate world. Oh sure, occasionally you'll post things on Facebook that make me cringe–sometimes I even point out why– but for the most part, I am constantly reassured by the collective honesty, integrity, and general consideration I see in the people I know.

Because there are people. There are so many people, angry, self-assured zealots, raging against all that is not them. Every incendiary blog post, every hateful youtube comment, every moronic tweet comes from some person, and that person is liable to vote, and lobby, and petition, and those are the voices that are heard–this screaming terror that drives our country.

So at 4 a.m. I had a realization. I can't in good conscience sit, idle and watch the narrative of this country, because it is horrifying. And I want to make it clear that I'm not talking about the moral degradation of society, or ebola, or the evils of liberalism, or conservatism or abortion or guns. I know for a fact that my readership is fairly split on these subjects, and I honestly think that our country is more safe, more healthy, and more free than it has ever been before.

 I'm talking about the story of our country, packaged by pundits and politicians and purchased by us. We are better than that–at least you are better than that–but while voices heard in comments and talk shows are these raging pseudo-sociopaths, that is the story that will be told.

So I may disagree with you about a lot of things, but I'm confident in your capacity for empathy and rational thought. So go be active, go to the source, consider issues thoroughly, conduct civil discourse and remember that people who disagree with you are not evil.

I do think most people are good and civil and thoughtful, but I think the people who shout loudest are the ones being heard, and those people don't seem good or thoughtful. Participate, online and in line, and convince more people like you to participate. If enough of us do, we might even get the narrative we need (because we will always get the narrative we deserve).

And go vote, because congress is a wreck and we chose every single one of them.