Wednesday, January 25, 2017

POLITICS: Across the spectrum

After a brutal, rancorous political season that pitted friend against friend, a most welcome spot of humor appeared in my mailbox today. Someone -- I have a prime suspect in mind -- sent me a subscription to a periodical that represents the utter and complete antithesis of my political beliefs. 
I laughed aloud upon seeing it, and when I sat down with it later that evening I was surprised to find the articles interesting, well written (once I got past the stereotypes and immoderate language) and well researched. I also appreciated the clean graphic design and the lack of all those distracting marginal factoids, pull quotes, and cut-out heads that plague so many magazines today.
One final political note: a former colleague of mine was participating in one of those marches in Washington DC this past week. While she was en route on the Metro, an angry man lunged at her, grabbed her thick foam-core hand-written sign and ripped it in half. She reported that a retired military man and his wife came to her rescue, and she was shaken up but unhurt; her friend's eyeglasses were knocked off. She proceeded to the march with her bisected sign.
There's just no excuse for such behavior. You may disagree with the sentiment expressed, but that doesn't justify violence.

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