My Wish

I donGÇÖt often post on blogs.  Usually I read the posts of others and on occasion IGÇÖll respond with a comment.  IGÇÖve composed diaries before, but never posted because IGÇÖm somewhat intimidated by the quality of the posts by the GÇ£regularsGÇ¥.
Without ever having seen your faces (with the exception of WaldoGÇöI work in Charlottesville), I feel I know you all.  There is a remarkable amount of talent, passion and camaraderie evident here on this site and other blogsGǪboth on the right, the left and between the two.  Never was it as obvious to me as during the past week or so with all this nonsense over Waldo and his aggregator.  The cream certainly rose to the top during that conversation.

It warmed my heart to witness people of opposing viewpoints stand up for one another simply because it was the right thing to do.  This brings me to my wishes for the New Year:

I wish for a year in which we could come together as a state/nation and thoughtfully discuss the issues dividing us.  I wish for these conversations to be civil.  I wish people would listenGǪreally listenGǪ to the opposing viewpoints and acknowledge that fundamentally we all really want the same things.

I wish the hateful rhetoric just for the sake of pissing off others would disappear from the dialog.  I wish people would concede that name calling and insults accomplish nothing.

I wish also the GÇ£youGÇÖre either with us or against usGÇ¥ attitude would bite the dust. I wish people of opposing viewpoints would come together on issues on which they do agree and not be called traitors and exiled for being true to their beliefs.

I wish political campaigns could be about issues.

I wish we could take the money out of politics so young idealistic people without vast resources could stand a chance of being elected to public office.

It may seem odd I didnGÇÖt wish for a resolution in Iraq that would bring our troops home with honor or an end to poverty or immigration reform or a balanced budgetGǪGǪyou get the picture.  In my heart I believe the only way the ills of our time will be resolved is for all of us to genuinely work together to find solutions.  We need to put our respective ideologies on the shelf and craft solutions for the greater good. No egos allowed.

IGÇÖm probably old enough to be the mother of most of you.  My generation (youGÇÖll notice I didnGÇÖt say Democrat/Republican, Conservative/Liberal) has done one heck of a job of making a mess of the world and dividing us as a nation, and I pledge to do whatever I can to make amends.  But ultimately, the solutions will rest on your young shoulders.  And IGÇÖm confident, based on getting to know you all this past year, youGÇÖre up to the task.  I have faith the majority of you have the best of intentions and the brains to put those intentions to good work.

Thanks for letting me sit in.  NowGÇöHappy New Year and get to work 

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