A Real Player

Facebook is a strange world where you can experience an array of emotions in only moments by simply scrolling down your computer screen. 

Is it this soup pot of emotion that leads some to believe their Facebook friends wait with bated breath for their political views? Is it why some feel they can rally us round and swing us to their side by relentlessly posting images designed to agitate and which possess not a spec of balance?

This has slowed down post election but I confess to pre-election irritation at this phenomenon. While I mostly felt compelled to encourage more critical thinking and less sheep-like behavior, I confess to writing harshly at times. I argued. I un-friended a few friends (although most I had never met). I hid others from view (as if that makes any difference).

Of course I admit to infinitely less irritation when these poster-ish images reflected my own views, but that's not my point...

Now, after talking in real time with a gentleman whom I could not call a friend as I had just met him, I see all this as daylight burned. Facebook has bamboozled us into thinking we're players. 

We're not.

If you want to be a real player, it is not your Facebook friends you write. You write your Congressman and your Senators. You write them ALL the time. It is when they recognize your name that you've become a real player.

The cynical among us will scoff at this. But, I choose to believe the wisdom of our founding fathers - men who felt so strongly about what they were creating they were prepared to die for it.

To that end I've now decided to begin continually writing my representatives. Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Senators Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson will soon recognize my name and, hopefully, look forward to my correspondence. And then, I'll be a real player.

To find the contact info for your Congressman, click here. For your Senator, click here.

FYI, an argument featuring a lack of time holds no water if you've a Facebook page.

I might also mention this isn't exactly my first rodeo. Late on the night I turned 22 I learned President Carter was also born on October 1st. Suddenly I couldn't bear the evening to end without calling the White House to wish him happy birthday. 

I was passed through to three different people and my conversation with each went something like this: "Hi! My name is Laurie Mabury. Today is my birthday and I just learned....etc, etc."

I was finally told the President had already retired for the evening. I made this third woman promise to pass my birthday wish along - literally, I made her say "I promise". She took my address and the next week a birthday card from the White House was delivered to my door.

Ok, it's not exactly the same. And, I'm not suggesting conversations attempting to extract promises. But, it surely couldn't hurt to learn the birthdays of your representatives.

I'm just saying....