Here's a real life story that takes me past sad, and perilously close to depression. A family that is close to me nearly became victims of the divisive politics being practiced by the media and politicos these days. I won't divulge the precise relationship, but for purposes of distinguishing the two individuals I will refer to "he" and "she". After the media opened a window into the private lives of Terri Schiavo and her family, "she" was persuaded by the media case that Schiavo was still aware, and that the doctors and judges who had the unhappy job of deciding her case were wrong. "He" felt it wrong to second-guess the doctors and judges without having the training, experience, or first-hand knowledge of the case necessary to understand what was going on and to make a competent decision. "He" also decried the aspertions and condemnations cast by the media and certain politicians upon Michael Schiavo. "He" felt that "she" was wrong and misled to take sides with the media and politicans, and he expressed that he felt ever-so-slight bitterness over the arrogance he perceived in her demeanor, and that he was sometimes gruff in his conversations with her as a result. At this point in the story, it appears as nothing more than a standard-issue family political squabble. Sure, I agree with "him" and disagree with "her", just as you may disagree with "him" and agree with "her". But, it's certainly nothing that should create any long-term disharmony within a family, right? After all, shouldn't both "he" and "she" recognize that the other's viewpoint is informed by concern for the welfare of the people involved? Shouldn't they both recognize that, no matter how wrong-headed or even arrogant the approach of the other, the fact remains that each is responding to what the media has chosen to present to them in the best way they know how, and with a desire for the best possible outcome?

Well, "he" received a note recently, signed by "her". "She" informed him that, during that time, she had considered breaking off all ties with him. Since then, she had reconsidered. She offered a reason for the reconsideration, but it didn't make much more sense to him than her reasoning for considering that to begin with.

I guess what is so frustrating and discouraging about this is that there isn't much advice I can give to "him" or to "her" that would do any good. I would like to tell her that emotions, unguided by reason, are dangerous and harmful... but it's quite doubtful that she would ever see the truth in that. All we can really do is sit back and hope that we can keep our own heads level when heated disagreements over politics arrive... Even when the media and politicians have zeroed in on a very "personal" seeming story - one that we can place ourselves "inside" of and feel a part of, we have to remember that this seeming intimacy is an illusion. We have to remember that it is our own families that we truly know intimately, and can truly understand the circumstances of.

And when politicians, pundits, or news anchors try to divide us, we should remember that the end of division is destruction...

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

"We must all hang together, or we will all hang, separately."

"There is really no crisis except an artificial one...If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end."
- Abraham Lincoln, February 15, 1861

"The time for compromise has now passed, and the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel."
- Jefferson Davis, February 16, 1861

Join me in hoping that cooler heads prevail this time around. It's not a good sign that the politicians are able to come so close to splitting up families over things like this.