Poli-psyched.

So people seem to be on about politics lately. Let me just say a few things, in the most respectful tone I can stand to muster about now.

I don't technically consider myself in a particular "party" as of the moment. However, I am a college senior/musician/artist who leans to the right (how is that even possible, right?), and have somehow managed to not cite/worship Steven Colbert or John Stewart like they're Dr. Jesus PhD of all things savvy and relevant or something. Now, if I've already lost your respect, then whatever. If you make it to the end of this post, it isn't even really so much about my own views...but I will lead with them a little.

I am not really about attacking people. I personally however disagree with many of the actions of our current President, though I say that still maintaining my respect for his office. I feel that our national debt is out of control, and yes, though the situation hasn't been ideal for some time, I believe a lot of this undue spending has been coming from unnecessary things that make the general public happy. I also feel that the recent bill on heathcare, whether you agree with it or not, was way too huge and packed with a BUNCH of non-healthcare related issues that were snuck into the legislation, many of which keep getting "discovered" because the thing was too huge and rushed to even be read by the people passing it. There are some other issues I have as well, but that's not really my point.

Still with me? Haven't lost all respect for The Great Sam Day?

I seem to see a lot of things on my newsfeed lately. People arguing and talking about how respectful and hopeful the DNC was, in contrast to the "mudslinging" of the Republicans. Admittedly, I didn't really watch either, at least not yet. I'm a little busy producing albums, playing concerts, commuting to college in Dayton, practicing, recording, writing, being involved in my church (oh dear, a college student in church? with old people?!), making art, being the President of the campus recording studio, etc.

But this I know. No party is really innocent of this kind of thing. And while you holier-than-thou twentysomethings were busy inventing new ways to say you're smarter than everyone else, I was just trying to watch a funny cat video on YouTube when an anti-Romney smear ad with the overall depth of a hallmark movie stole thirty seconds of my bandwidth. Yeah, and there's nothing like those "sponsored tweets" hijacking my twitter feed to make sure I know just how things "are". So, a fallacious red-herring like talking about the overall PR of one event just doesn't seem to make the case for me.

Now, who you vote for and the values you hold are your choice. Really. And please do discuss them. But too often I feel like people like me have been scoffed at like some sort of toothless, outdated hilljack for being the slightest bit conservative. But really, again, my personal beliefs aren't my bottom line here. I am not really even saying anything about Romney, I can't really say that I agree with him 100% either.

Whatever your beliefs are, we ought to just be able to share them articulately. Without fear. I look out at big public figures....you know, people like Lady Gaga or something who have gained a lot of fanbase because of how outspoken they are. Whether you or I agree with them or not really isn't the bottom line. I just feel like anyone who sort of leans toward the "conservative" side (which is really a sort of unfair term anyway) immediately gets labeled as either "THE MAN" (like, "fight the man", you dig?) or tragically out of touch, while people on the other side of things get labeled as the "underdog" who is fighting the status quo. The thing is, looking at my facebook feed, seems like that hasn't been quite the whole truth. I'm not going to be afraid of losing fans or something anymore because of where I stand. I'm not out to shove anything down anyone's throat or force you to be like me. But I'm not stupid. Most people who know me personally know I'm an intelligent, respectful and respectable person. Though I haven't been perfect, I've done more good than you'd probably care to know, and done a whole lot less COMPLAINING ON FACEBOOK than I probably could have gotten away with. So how could someone like me think "that way?". Chances are, you probably didn't even know where I stood on some of this, and still don't on a lot of other things. As I said before, I haven't really gone around picking fights.

Well, regardless of the answer to the aforementioned question, we should just be who we were created to be (and please, don't start some hotly debated semantical forum about what that means right now). And to the Christians who have been making comments like "I'll just stay out of it"...well, ok, I respect and understand that we don't need to squabble unproductively like many others. I get that people. But please, don't use Christianity as an excuse to be a pansy. I don't go around preaching my spiritual or political beliefs to people on a whim. I know how unproductive that can be in many instances. But we shouldn't be afraid to hold our beliefs just because they are "uncool".

And I've seen some questionable sources thrown around just to chum the water anyway. While Bill Nye has totally spoken out against creationism, there's been this whole big fat thing going around about him losing his cool and dropping the F bomb about 8 billion times regarding the issue (and several others), which just made all you facebookers about wet your pants with joy. But, then I turned around and saw an article saying that, despite his real anti-creationist feelings, this popular account never happened. (http://www.snopes.com/politics/satire/billnye.asp) I seriously to this day haven't been able to verify if this thing ever happened or not, or if everyone just so wanted it to have happened that we went all 1984 in this mug and convinced each other that it actually went down. I can't find the video....nothing. But seriously. You "i love to debate on facebook all day long" types may as well have been citing it on a college paper with your backing of this story. So seems to me it's gotten a little sharky up in here.

Let's not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in. But do your best to do so in love, people.

And maybe you'll think I'm a little crazy. But hey, people thinking that hasn't stopped Tom Cruise from being wildly successful either.