I Thought It Was Just Me...

When I left for Japan at the end of July, I was actually looking forward to not hearing about Presidential primaries, immigration, and the war in Iraq. I was going to be in a foreign country where I did not understand the language and I was going to be so busy I wasn't going to have time to watch TV.

However, I was rather reluctant to jump back into the fray when I came home. I avoided newspapers, TV news and opinion programs, and most blogs.

I'm finally coming around to "catching up," and what I'm finding is that many bloggers--especially women bloggers--especially women bloggers with children--have also stepped back from political commentary.

The Anchoress, one of my favorite bloggers, commenting on the immigration debate, responded to comments, "One of the reasons I stopped posting on this issue was because people kept going round and round and round, saying the same damn things over and over again. This is still the case. No one is saying anything new on immigration." Frankly, the same could be said of just about all the major issues. Just this weekend, at a local community fair, I was asked if I was interested in signing a petition to impeach President Bush and V.P. Cheney. The woman who asked me was my age. We were looking at some handcrafted jewelry. I was wearing a red shirt with a big black eagle against a yellow sun (it's our Boy Scout troop T-shirt). She was very polite about it, so I very politely answered, "No."

What I felt like saying was, "What has either man done that's an impeachable offense? In sixteen months they will both be out of the White House anyway. And it will take about that long for the dog-and-pony show to conclude if there is any reason to impeach. And if Nancy Pelosi did become President (and steal Mrs. Clinton's place in history as the first woman president), she'd have about four months before the newly elected President took office.

"Oh, and by the way, we're in the middle of a war."

Speaker Pelosi did not get to her position of power by being politically stupid. Being President means you represent the entire country, including the "flyover" states, not just those who belong to MoveOn. And, yes, I think Mrs. Pelosi is smart enough to realize that she wouldn't be able to just govern from the Left.

Basta! as the Italian grandmothers in my home parish would say. Enough! You don't talk business at the dinner table.

Meanwhile, I have smaller, humbler, more immediate concerns. Is DS#1 going to be able to stay focused on his classes while living away from home and on his own? Is DD#2 going to find her passion and go on to a university next fall or is she going to succumb to the lure of making money? Will DS#2 survive his Junior year--especially his English teacher? Will he ever finish the paperwork for Eagle? Will he do well in the SATs and PSATs, especially the writing portion? Will DD#2 survive her Silver Award project? How much reminding should I do? Will she fit in with her new high school classmates, especially since they are in a different income bracket? (DS#2 doesn't mind, but girls can be really nasty about appearances and brand names.) Will Hubs exercise and lose weight? And how much can I nag him about that?

So talk to me when somebody says something new, something different, something thoughtful. Until then I have cell organelles to name, ingredients for s'mores to buy, groceries to stock, lunches to pack, dinners to make.