A Sleeping Giant

Possibly it’s because this has been such a hot week.  One that virtually purged the memory of “The Winter that Was.”  I believe it’s more than that, however.

Whatever the cause or causes, a sleeping giant is beginning to rumble evoking memories of Gulliver when he loosened his bonds.

It can hardly be attributed to the Silent Majority, or the Liberal Left.  No, I think it is just something else that has caused a rupture in the placid blanket of content that has allowed Americans to listen rather than think.

There has been a heat wave weather-wise, but also the political dialogue has become equally or possibly hotter than the temperature.  And perhaps that is a good thing because it has brought back into focus dialogue between citizens rather than lectures from veteran political pundits on TV.

The sad reality of recent elections has been the shocking number of voters who abstained from this incredible privilege afforded by our Constitution.  The political rhetoric has become louder each year, while the number of citizens voting has diminished.

Most of us have fallen into the trap of avoiding valid political discussions rather than chance innocently offending another’s sensibilities.  So the blanket of silence has become thicker while the noise from a handful of TV commentators and analysts has become louder, akin to the fire and brimstone of yesteryear.

Suddenly, I am hearing opinions, not judgment, expressed candidly without rancor about the current political battlefield.  It has been a long time since that happened.

A wonderful friend and I were having coffee last evening.  During the many years of our relationship, politics have never entered our conversation.  They did last night, and for the first time, both of us became aware that we were on totally opposite sides of the political arena.  Did it change our relationship?  Not at all.  I think it made us both more aware of the value of a friendship that permits an honest dialogue.  Many elections have passed without this integrity of opinion being openly expressed.  Americans began to listen rather than speak at some point during the past decades.  Perhaps that accounts for the 93 million citizens who chose not to vote in 2012.

If this sleeping giant rises to its feet, it may not matter who is elected because the people will have spoken for the first time in a very long time.  America will be at its best because it will no longer be focus groups or political junkies who decide who should win.  The American people will have decided the fate of their country.