The First Real Snow!

I made the treacherous commute to my office this morning...with the aid of my snow blower of course. I have to admit that I like the snow. I've always thought if it is going to be cold and dreary out a nice blanket of snow makes things look better. On the other hand, last year was a bit extreme. So this can the the first and last real snow storm of the winter and we should all be fairly happy.

I almost spit my coffee out this morning as I was watching the morning news. The topic of course was the shooting in Arizona and they were going to begin the debate concerning if the current political climate had anything to do with the shooting. I guess they were looking at the possibility of a link between the vitriol that comes out of Washington, and political commentators, giving this person a motive. My first reaction was you've got to be kidding me! But as I sit here and let my wonderer wonder a little bit maybe it is a healthy debate to have.

Before I go any further I place the blame for the shooting squarely on the shooter. I am sure the causes are complex and many, but there is no excuse for what he did and he chose to pull the trigger. What I'm interested in looking at is the power of words. People are lazy...we don't want to take the time to read both sides of a story and come up with our own opinion. We'd much rather listen to someone who we believe reflects our view points and let them do the thinking for us. What ends up happening is we just hear one distorted side of the story and that colors the way we think, talk and probably even act a little bit. Why think for ourselves when we can have someone else tell us what to believe. Do I need to explain the danger in that? Not only does this happen in the political world but it happens at church too. People would much rather be told what they should believe then be asked to think for themselves.

I can be guilty of this too. It takes a little work and energy to think for myself, and it takes a little bit of stretching the brain to read the other side of an argument with an open mind. The real scary part is you might find yourself agreeing with the other side or at least parts of it. The real shame is I believe 80% of people are fairly opening minded. The trouble is the voices we hear, political or religious, are from the 20% on the extreme ends of the spectrum. These voices then presume to speak for the rest of us, and the commentary isn't helpful at all because it comes from an extreme point of view with no regard for the other side. I guess what I'm saying, besides venting a little, is that we need to be mindful of what we say and where our info is coming from. We need to take the time to think for ourselves and decide what we truly believe. And, maybe most importantly, we need to take into account what our words and beliefs will do to others. Our Savior did remind us that we are to be caretakers of the world...and that means everyone in it...even those we're convinced are wrong.