COVID-19, a blog entry

The world is an absolute mess. 

My brain has been trying to piece it all together. I think it always comes back to... we as a society have allowed, even encouraged, some dreadful things to happen. To fix things, we have to dig through the mud and listen to each other.

I love being an American. I love the USA. I see many amazing things about my country, but I’m wise enough to see the glaring problems. Most of them are connected.

In fact, I believe most of our issues boil down to greed.

Politics and me

I've had a falling out with political discussion.

I just don't like it anymore.

I used to enjoy debating politics with people, but there have been a few changes in my life that made me... not necessarily apathetic, but... I just don't want any part in the discussion.

For one thing, I want to publish books, and I don't want anyone to not purchase my books on the basis of my political orientation. I know that's a cop-out, but it's true. I want to write books for children, and I don't want ______ political person to hate me so much that they won't let their kid read my work. My work is non-political; I just want to tell fun stories and get kids reading. If anything, literacy for kids is my personal mission. I think there comes a point where a writer needs to decide if they want to be all-encompassing or politically motivated, and I want to be all-encompassing. I want liberals and conservatives alike to buy my books and enjoy them. I plan to never donate money I make off of books to political causes (FYI, the thing I want to donate money to is clean drinking water charities for poor people in other parts of the world). I want buyers to be at-ease with me. I really do.

The second motivation I have for being a-political is the bigger reason: I just want to love everyone.

My oldest friend told me once that she didn't like certain people on facebook because they were always angry about politics, and it enlightened me. Who does like someone who is always angry? Not me. Slamming other people based off of their values and feelings is useless and makes you hold anger in your heart. You see this sort of thing a lot on twitter trends. Hashtags like, #SayThreeWordsAbout(insert political group). That kind of thing does nothing but spreads hate. Pulls us apart. I think the only way for any good to happen is to come together, and political debate does nothing for unity.

I might not agree with someone, but the path to political understanding comes from seeing their perspective, not from broadcasting your own. That leads me to my third reason:

Most people don't care if they're wrong. This was a huge realization for me, because I truly care to know when I'm wrong/mistaken about things. I like to be corrected if I get my facts messed up. I like to see where other people are coming from. I admit when I'm wrong. Truth is, though, most people don't want to know if they're wrong. Even if they do know, most people don't care. Most people don't care if the logic doesn't flow; they'll keep on debating the point long after it is disproven. This is the essence for why debate does nothing, I've found. People want to be heard, not to hear.

So, although I'm not apolitical or apathetic, I have chosen to back off of it completely, for my writing career and for myself.


Follow me @Oxyborb and check out my website at http://www.harrisonaye.com Thanks for reading!

Budweiser’s Make Opening Day A National Holiday Campaign

Baseball makes Budweiser a ton of money. Do I need to say more? Yes? Alright…

It seems like everyone is being shuffled into another dumb viral marketing campaign. My facebook is clogged with people talking about making MLB’s Opening Day a nationally recognized holiday. Meanwhile, all of the shared links, pictures, and videos of Ozzie Smith are plastered with Budweiser, Budweiser, Budweiser.

Before you start calling me a commie, please note that I think Opening Day would be a fun sort of holiday. I love baseball. I really do. I have the STL Cardinals, and who could ask for a better team to root for? (I used to own an Ozzie Smith baseball card collection!)

brought to you by...

But the idea of a major corporation purchasing a nationally recognized holiday sickens me. It really does. Corporations already own the entire government. Political leaders might as well have endorsements sewn onto their suits to display all the companies that own them.

Do we really need for our national culture to become marketing propaganda any more than it already is? Because that’s what it will be. If Budweiser can throw money at this, purchase a national holiday, it will not be baseball’s holiday… it will be Budweiser’s.

Every year, we will have a nationally recognized holiday that will have been bought and paid for by a beer company, and they will never let us forget it.

MLK vs. BUD

I don’t want Budweiser in the same league as Martin Luther King Jr.. I don’t want to decoration for Budweiser Day the same as I do for Christmas. No. No, no nononoono.

No!

If you want opening day as a holiday, America, do it on your own terms, not a beer company’s. Please. Have some self-respect. Don’t sell out our cultural significance to marketing propaganda.

Also, opening day can’t become a holiday before Halloween.





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