Two Conversations

I have had two fairly interesting conversations in the past two days.

One was with one of my very good friend, who when we ventured onto the subject of current events, promptly decided to proudly proclaim that, "Bush is an idiot." Now she is a very good friend of mine, so I didn't "rip her a new one," but I began to ask her why she said that. She, admittedly, didn't necessarily have a reason or any facts to say why she thinks that, but here is what she said, "I don't really know why, but it just seems like he is."

When pushed just a little harder she managed to come up with a couple of basic, weak, liberal catchphrases that she had picked up somewhere. You know, Bush is a liar, oil-monger, etc ... unnecessary war. And that is where I had to stop her. I intervened and kind of mobile-blogged her right there. We went through why we went there in the first place and why we, obviously, can't 'cut-and-run.' She didn't leave loving Bush, but she will probably think again before spurting out some things, that she doesn't really have the back-up for.

My main point from that is that her overall perception of Bush was negative. She called him an idiot. But she didn't know why. She just felt that way. In a nutshell, that is what a liberal wants you to do. 1. Say what we say. 2. Don't think about it, just feel that way. She is not an avid news/blog reader. She doesn't particularily care. But that was the perception that she gleaned from catching sound bites and other such 'drive-by media' pieces over the past couple of years. Well, she isn't a raving, uncontrollable liberal and she isn't going to become one, if I can do anything about it.

The other conversation was with a random guy in some well-established recreation and refreshment facility. He was a marine. Or had been. He got hurt in Iraq and has been discharged. We didn't have a thorough conversation, however I asked him what he thought of Iraq and the war. And he told me, "I miss it. I would go right back over in a heartbeat. What we are doing over there is working and I loved being a part of it." I thought that was succinctly and nicely put. He didn't strike me as a person who was attempting to use a platform that he had just gained to throw out some political perspective or agenda. He was just a genuine, well-refreshed young man. I thanked him for his service and we moved on with our evenings.

Two different conversations. Two very different perceptions. Drive-by media versus a guy who went over, got hurt and wants to go back over again. I guess it just matters what you want to hear.