This is the reason I started this blog.
Madison.
Protests.
Good grief.
Living and working in the Madison, Wisconsin area has been, quite frankly, a severe headache for me for years.
I grew up in an extremely conservative area of Cook County, Illinois. Quite frankly, I never quite fit in. Oh, I tried. My dear Lord, I tried. In fact, I tried harder to fit in there than I have anywhere else since I left that area.
Then I went to college...an extremely liberal college. Quite frankly, I never quite fit in. I kinda tried, but within less than two years, I gave up and left that school. I went to a different school, which really had no political leanings. I fit in...and fit in quite well. Granted, it was an engineering school, but still, it was a college and my belief meant nothing to how people thought of me. I can honestly say, I probably felt more comfortable with my surroundings there than I have ever before.
But then I graduated and I moved to Madison, Wisconsin. Quite frankly, I've never quite fit in. In fact, I've given little effort to fit in.
*********************
The news if filled with coverage of the protests occurring right now in Madison. A number of my friends and family around this area are quite liberal. And I some of my friends and family in this area that are quite conservative. In fact, I would have a hard time finding too many people that I know that would truly be classified as moderate. Oh, there are some that would say they are, but they really aren't.
So then it comes back to me. Where do you place someone that is pro-life, anti-gun, pro-taxing the rich, anti-death penalty, pro-health care reform, anti-big government, pro-tort reform, anti-social security, pro-unilateralism, anti-war?
I'm a contradiction. I'm a paradox. And I believe I'm with a majority on a good number of these issues. So why does it seem that more often than not, I'm surrounded by people who I absolutely don't fit in with?
So Madison is now pretty much at a standstill as the country watches the negative feedback toward the recently elected (and elected by a fairly large margin) governor.
I've been in some heated discussions with people about this to the point where someone that I have worked with and gotten along with for 10 years threatened to fight me this past week. (This was quite some turnabout for me as I tend to be the aggressor and short to anger.)
I can honestly say that Madison has brought out the worst in me over the last 10 years. At the same time, this past week has been quite an eye opener for me. I have seen these issues bring out the best in a number of people (the protests have been wonderfully peaceful) and then the worst in people as people who do understand the issues have decided not to listen to any alternate viewpoints, while people who don't fully understand are just being followers and are unwilling to truly delve into the issue to really understand it.
When I lived in the Chicago area, while I tried to act extremely conservative, I was pointed out as being anything but. When living in Madison, I've been accused of being conservative. I have a handful of friends who live in Wisconsin who are indeed conservative and the open hostility toward their viewpoints is, honestly quite appalling, especially considering that the left wingers claim to be more educated and compassionate. So when something comes up that I might have to disagree with a majority in Madison, you begin to see how uncomfortable things become for me to say anything.
In the end, I suppose I've found it more comfortable to live in a conservative community. We recently moved from Madison to a town over 30 miles away. I still work in Madison, but the town I now live in is quite the opposite.
I probably disagree with many of my neighbors on a good deal of issues, but I don't feel any threat at being labeled by these people. Maybe it's because they don't care. Maybe things are just simpler here. But I think they are just more accepting.
It makes me happy to think that, for the first time since I graduated college, I might finally be in an area where I can be comfortable in what I believe it.
As far as the rest of what's going on in Madison right now...that will have to wait for another post.
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