It's interesting how quickly a conversation can change direction... and the temperature in a room can suddenly drop dramatically.
The Microsoft PC vs. Apple Mac commercials teasingly banter and josh. Religious and political jokes are funny.... when you or someone of the same belief(s) are the one making them.
But some topics immediately affect that atmosphere of a room.
For instance -
Zoning restrictions. Well, at least where I live. Some of us want to keep the Palominas area rural. and everyone else wants to have a 'real' grocery store locally instead of having to drive eighteen miles for a gallon of milk (just plan ahead, that's my motto... or borrow it from the neighbor who drove the eighteen miles the day before).
Gay marriage - which gets everyone who is heterosexual dreadfully hot under the collar immediately. I LOVE the fact that almost all of my acquaintances 'assume' that I, as a Latter-Day Saint, will 'of course' have supported every family measure (i.e. defining marriage as one man and one woman... which somehow coming from a church which moved to what was at the time part of Mexico in part because of practicing polygamy just tickles me pink).
And, of course,
Who you voted for for president (how can that sentence possibly be grammatically correct, yet it is) last Tuesday. Again, since I am LDS, and
especially since I live in Arizona - "What do you
mean that you didn't vote for McCain?" The main objection doesn't seem to be anything against Obama, it's just not voting the straight Republican ticket. There are people insisting that Sarah Palin is more qualified than Obama (?????), that it was only because the 'liberal media made up' stories about her (hmm... I saw the actual
Katie Couric interview, and in print it's even a little more scary) and she was in no way a negative influence in the election.
So here is what I propose - let's do away with red and blue states, and just color the entire U.S.A. map purple.
Think that will help?
