The Wall, Shutdown and An Epiphany!

Well I don't know why I came here tonight.
I've got the feeling that something ain't right.
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair
And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs.

Clowns to the left of me!
Jokers to the right!
Here I am stuck in the middle with you.

(Stealers Wheel. 1972)

The Democrats are flexing their new muscle and digging their heels in about Trump's wall. Trump is busy trumping up (sorry I couldn't help it) support for the wall by inflating the crisis story. This Stealers Wheel song comes to mind. Dems to the left of me, GOP to the right...here I am stuck in a shutdown with you. While having a strong belief that a wall is about the stupidest, most extravagant waste of time and money possible, I had a new thought. Eureka! I don't really know what's going on at the southern border. I don't know if a wall is what would be helpful or not. I don't know how many people are crossing illegally. I don't know how the people who live there are experiencing this situation and what they want. I don't even know what the overall true immigration issues are. How many immigrants/refugees can we absorb? Does the immigration process need to be changed? How?

Yes, I have read the news articles, listened to both sides. But much of it is second hand reporting with a bias toward one side or the other. When it comes down to really knowing, I don't. What makes many of us want to fight to the death, and lose friends, over something that we really have no first hand knowledge of? Somebody said people will believe anything as long as they like the person saying it. It's a complicated psychological drama we are in. 

I certainly know how I feel and what I believe. But a belief is, after all, just an idea we have repeated over and over until we think it is an obvious truth.  Social networking algorithms have strengthen the perception that my thought is the only true thought, because that is all we see: more of what we like and agree with. Imagine Trump sitting in the oval thinking like I do, that the world agrees with his every thought. I'm sure it's happening. It a crazy distorted reality. But that's not all. It has created such polarity between factions that there is a concern that violence will be the next step unless we can all realize...WE KNOW NOTHING.  It's not that the news is all fake, but it sure is biased. That influences each of us one way or another and then we get on facebook. Oy! Between the trolls and the bots, the fur flies! And still - WE KNOW NOTHING! 

So this new thought has caused me to soften my position, to accept that I really don't know anything about anything except what is right in front of me.  I will still have my opinions but will listen more and talk less. 

Thanks for reading.