Lots of people believe that all they have to do is shout and they solve the problem.
Bernie Sanders hectors us on falling family income and wealth inequality and sticking it to Wall Street.
Donald Trump blusters about politicians and immigration policy and making America great again.
Oddly, this column is not about politics. I don’t care if Mr. Sanders has a higher net worth than 85% of his fellow countrymen nor what country Mr. Trump was born in.
The AARP has a great series of “Take A Stand” ads that I simply had to plug. See, their braying, trumpeting characters take us to a larger truth.
Real people point us down the same road.
“I had my say,” my friend Ashley Proctor says, satisfied. Having had her say, she can go on about her day with the warm feeling that she solved whatever problem that angered her.
Ms. Proctor thunders on regularly about how I don’t want people to get health care and the evils of non-traditional marriage and even how long it takes to defrost a turkey (longer, she thinks, in the frig than in a cooler).
Do you suppose that yelling at me about any of those will change my mind or change her life?
My friend Dean “Dino” Russell regularly rants on Facebook about ethanol in gas and solar deniers and illegal aliens. He mostly uses ALL CAPS.
I’m absolutely sure Dino knows that the people who agree with him just nod and click “Next” and those who don’t agree with him just shake their heads knowingly and click “Next,” too.
And yet we still have ethanol in our gas (and the price of corn has quintupled) and the entertainment industry still thinks E.T. should be able to vote.
I worry that soooooo many of my friends think that bombast is all it takes to change the world.
So what’s the problem? Pissing in the wind is a good thing, right?
Yes, I can spell Irony :-)
YELLING SUCKS!