This is the 800th entry on this site and I thought I’d use this time to vent.

Aside from our list of The Things That Need to Go that comes out annually, I don’t jump into politics,mainly because I’m one of those people who doesn’t want to hear the opinions of politics from their sports guy. For some of you,I am your sports guy and for the most part I like to stick to that. I also don’t know that much about it to talk about it regularly and I also don’t think shoving my beliefs down anyone’s throat is a good way to make friends.

We’re 23 days away from election day, from selecting who will be our 45th president. Honestly,I’m done with this election already. You can safely say that I’ve been done with it for a while. I hate everything about it,from the two main people we have to vote for to the political ads that just attack the other candidate rather than state the ideas they have for the office they’re running for. As far as elections in my lifetime go (there have been nine of them), this one has to be the worst one. By a mile. In terms of the candidates that ran,in terms of the quality of those candidates,and the quality of the races that all but one of these candidates ran,and the lack of civility we lack towards one another now because of it.

Don’t get me wrong,this isn’t the first time that elections have brought out the worst in us as a society, and I wish I was able to say that it’ll be the last,but with the comments I see on social media in regards to politics, in regards to things candidates have said or done or what the spouse of a candidate has done in the past or what a candidate has done in the past,it doesn’t matter,what everyone is spewing is garbage and hatred and intolerance towards one another. It’s not just social media,it’s also face to face and on television. I’ve seen family members of mine get put down for simply stating their opinion, I’ve seen family members snipe at each other online, I’ve seen people break off friendships because of their beliefs, even putting down other people themselves and their religious and personal beliefs, sexual orientation,their ethnicity, their families, their heritage, and even their intelligence when it comes to whether or not they’re fit to vote because they support one candidate or the other.

I even see what I think is voter intimidation from people in regards to who to vote for. People who think that voting for one person makes you a terrible human being,or voting for the two main candidates means it’s a vote for one candidate over another. It is absolutely nobody’s place to tell you who to vote for and it’s also nobody’s goddamn business who you want to vote for. Nobody’s. No one. Ever. Most of the intimidation is actually done by people who supposedly share a lot of the same political beliefs that I do,and it’s unacceptable.

The level of intolerance and lack of civility I’ve seen and continue to see have absolutely disheartened and saddened me. I don’t think I’ve seen such bad behavior from a society and a nation that should know how to better behave themselves. And no,the media nor the candidates aren’t solely to blame. It’s the individual who is most responsible for their actions and their words. We all are,in sickness and in health. No pissing contest you’re having with another person who disagrees with you is going to convince me otherwise.

I’m not going to plea with any of you to be more civil towards one another because that’s not really my job or responsibility to do so. A lot of you are grown up enough to know that you have better,more positive things to say about one another and the path to becoming a more civil and open-minded person starts with you. Beyond that, a world where being more civil,friendly,and accepting of one another seems like an impossibility at the point we’re currently at and it looks as though some,if not most of you, are incapable of merging onto the high road. I know a lot of you are decent and wonderful people and the way you’ve soured on me has been nothing short of astounding. I hope you realize that in the end,we’re all in this life together and we all need each other and we need to start listening to and respecting one another and not let the pettiest of differences come between us. I don’t know if that’ll happen,but the king of wishful thinking in me still hold onto that pipe dream.