My Apathy Part One

For fifty seven years I have reaped the benefits of having been born a citizen of the good old USA. Being born in 1952 I was too young to remember the bomb shelters and drills held in fear of the atomic bomb. Then of course, Vietnam was a cause I was too busy to be overly concerned about while I meandered through my teen years and would catch occasional glimpses of the news about the war and the protests that accompanied it. Watergate was on the back burner for me because I was a young single woman trying to get through the sixties and politics were not on my to-do list.Marriage, a career, a fine son, and a dream of raising and showing Arabian horses consumed me for nearly the next thirty years. I voted diligently for the candidate I heard mentioned the most in a positive light. I went along with my friends and family on political matters because I could not be bothered with the complicated task of researching who really was best for our country. I would catch bits and pieces of political debate among the postal workers as I cased my mail for delivery when I was tired of listening to seventies rock on my CD earphones.I voted for Reagan because he was a familiar name and I liked his Hollywood persona. I voted for George H. Bush because he flew the same kind of plane my husband flew in during WWII. I voted for his son DubYa (twice, mind you) because I thought he had a nice personality and I liked his father. I voted against Clinton because he lied about Monica Lewinski. I didn't really care so much about the affair, it was that he lied and the lies were stupid that turned me off. In local politics I voted for levies involving schools and for the police and fire departments across the board because they were good things to vote for. You don't even want to know why I voted for and against some Representatives and Senators but as an example I will tell you I continually voted against one guy because he sent out too many thin, hard to handle campaign postcards in election years which added to my workload at the post office. Long story short, I relied on everyone else to see to it I had a pretty decent country to live in. After all, what can go wrong with a Republic such as ours based on our Constitution and our Bill of Rights. I actually did know a lot about the American Revolution and our founding fathers' fight for freedom because it did intrigue me while I was in school. Too bad I didn't take our gift from them seriously as I grew up and lived my life.