I Just Unfriended You

It's a click now, instead of an uncomfortable phone call or an awkward date. Still, un-friending someone is an unpleasant affair. When you have to do it in person you have to look at someone, face them and express yourself. Often, especially if you are un-friending outside the heat of a rabid moment, you parse words, hem, haw, look away. But if I had to face this person I might not be able to quiet my anger over her disgusting attitude towards the president and his family.

In her most recent rant, one my un-friend borrows from someone else because she can't even inarticulately assert her own point of view, she "demands" respect for the office of the presidency. Irony abounds.

Few things, as we part ways:

1. The U.S. Constitution affords us the right to be disrespectful - even to the office of the president. In fact, that's kind of the point - so get your facts straight about how American you are. You're an idiot. Really.

2. I rather prefer respect for the office of the presidency too - we agree! - so stop your piggish, racist, ignorant and ill-informed condemnations. Mr. Obama is the President of the United States of America and the holder of the office gets to have a say on policy and spending. It's kind of the job. (See 'idiot' reference above.)

3. You and I went to Catholic school together. Maybe you ought to re-acquaint yourself with some of the tenets of our faith. Try "love thy neighbor as thyself", for one. Or "judge not lest ye be judged". Or "don't be such a jerk". That last one was mine.  (Dare I say it again?)

4. You make me so MAD! You don't want the country to change? We might become communist because we have -GASP- healthcare? So you think all property will become publicly owned and we will all work in grey uniforms in a vocation of the government's choosing? Because the government has imposed rules on one of the most decadent, wasteful and arrogant industries in this country? Yeah. That makes sense. You're more like Putin than Putin. The 80s called. They want your dated, head-up-your-rear foreign policy knowledge back. Upward mobility - a foundational pillar of the American capitalist system - has been crippled, SUFFOCATED, by our appallingly archaic healthcare system.

You should want the country to change. All of life is about change. If we don't move, grow, adapt, refine and continue to pursue our 'more perfect union' we are failing the purpose of our country. We'll wither and die as a force for good in the world. In fact, we are the elevated version - if you believe all the horse-crap about American exceptionalism - of societal organization. What organization can you think of that doesn't change in order to continue to succeed.  Are you still writing on parchment with an ink pot and quill? I give you too much credit. If you could think we'd be having a different conversation. Maybe you should get back in your carriage and go home. GRRRRRR!

But the truth is I didn't unfriend you - really - because of your political views. I suppose everyone's entitled to be an idiot, even me.

I unfriended you because of your personal attacks on the President and his family. Every President and his family serve us at great personal expense: there is no anonymity ever again - a child's privacy, a normal life, is never returned - they cannot err without ever an entourage of cameras and recordings broadcasting each misstep. Could someone listen to everything you say, take pictures of every outfit you wear, videotape every cough, sneeze and blink in exchange for insurmountable pressure, responsibility for billions of dollars in debt, millions of lives in your hands, nuclear weapons in your charge and others aimed at your neighbors, the possibility of an assassin at any moment targeting your babies, and the despicable ingratitude of racism focused at you personally and your young daughters by your own constituents?

You'd collapse under the weight after just a split second.

You are weak in mind and in spirit.You embarrass me, as an American, a woman and a human being.

So we can't be friends.

Click.