Let’s all play together

One of the first lessons I was taught as a youngin’ was how to play well with others.  I would share my toys, take turns, and listen to my elders.  I was a good girl…really.

Being a good girl, I was surprised by kids who were not well-behaved.  There was one boy–a little rapscalian named “Bad Brian” (we actually called him that.  I guess we weren’t as “good” as we thought)–who was bad.  I recall one conversation in which Bad Brian told me that when he was older, he was going to drive 170 MPH.  I was aghast!  Bad Brian was always getting in trouble, and he even had a special time-out spot all his own.  He’d throw dirt at other kids, say nasty things, steal toys, and a plethora of other socially disruptive behavior that threw the daycare into chaos.

Sometimes I wonder what happened to Bad Brian, if he really drives 170 MPH, and if he’s still, well, bad.  My guess is that he went into politics or became a CIA assassin.  At 5 years of age, Brian was a miscreant in a world in which we were learning to get along with our peers.  Now I’m far removed from the world of playdough and crayon art, but the lessons I learned in those years were valuable.  Perhaps, they are the greatest things that we as a society can learn–we need to try to get along.

But we don’t get along, do we?  We honk our horns impatiently when other drivers go the speed limit and give the finger to anyone whose driving we find offensive.  We shove our cart into the 10 items or less lines at the grocery store, even though we know we have 18 items.  We gossip about our co-workers and send mean e-mails to anonymous bloggers.  We humans have terrible relations with one another.

There are acts of humanity and charity, which are beautiful and lovely–firefighters who rush into burning buildings to save beloved pets, people who travel to Africa to build wells, and neighbors who make dinner for the elderly folks living next door.  However, there seems to be a general current of disrespect running through our culture, which is plain nasty.

Maybe all this election nonsense has me tangled up in blue.  I’m tired of the misrepresentations, outright lies, and political manipulation on all sides.  Just tell the people the truth, what you want to do to make the world a better place, and let us choose who we think is best man or woman for the position.  Do we have to send the candidates and their campaigns back to pre-school to learn how to share their legos and markers?  Instead of a debate, perhaps Obama and McCain can go play on the swings together and climb the jungle gym.  The candidates need to get back to the basic–let’s all play nicely.  It’s OK to disagree, but do so in a respectable fashion.

It’s also the media slanting and skewing the news with their personal bias.  Just the facts, please, just the facts.  I don’t care what you think of the story; I just want you to report the news.  And do our opinions, mine included, have to be dripping with sarcasm?  What is wrong with us?

Here’s my solution to the problem–we need to go backto kindergarten so we can learn to be human again.  Let’s go back to where we first learned to get along and see if we can play nicely once again.