Declaration of My Independence

(Excerpted from my post: My Political Manifesto: Turning Independent)

I'm not interested in convincing, converting or proving rightness and wrongness. I’m interested in sensing what issues, beliefs and candidates seems right for me. I'm not interested in trying to pull you over to my vote. Why would I want to convince you to think, or vote or worship like me, when you are you?

That is my compass and the only one I follow in the midst of all the political and religious noise, rhetoric and anger.

I am guided by me I admit, but appreciative of you.

And, how I view the destiny of our world, may not be how you view it but I will not bend, ever, towards what does not resonate with me.

The chaos, the unbalance, these are our painful tipping points but a re-balancing towards better times I feel.  I say this no matter if we are in a President of “my” choosing, or yours.

• I will not see the economic or religious Apocalypse because you do.
• I will not be miserable because you are.
• I will not dumb myself down to elevate you up.
• I will not think the world is a hell hole to bolster your debate or to distract you from your pain, to commiserate as misery likes to do.
• I will listen with respect, with genuine empathy. I will acknowledge your view and offer unpatronizing hope.
•  I will share my painful experience if it matches yours but I won't create pretend pain to help you feel better. 
• I will live my own joy, my own worries, my own life.

And in that, I believe we can find where we agree, in the middle, a place where dissension finds a useful home and an unlikely friend.    

Laura