The following is a response to today’s Daily Post writing prompt, “Never.” 

Today’s post presents a bit of a predicament for me, in that in the process of talking about the subjects I consider verboten, I will actually be talking about those subjects, anyway. It’s like saying, “This sentence is false.” You end up falling on both sides of the coin, simultaneously. It’s a dangerous business, my friends.

There are two things that I tend not to talk about, just in general, under any circumstance: politics and abortion.

It’s not that I never think about these things (I do) or that I don’t care (the opposite, in fact). I read a fair amount of political news. I stay up to date with who’s saying what about whom. But the facts are that I hold a certain set of beliefs, other people hold another set of beliefs, and though I’m willing to listen to both sides, its rare that I run into other people who are willing to do the same. Every now and then, though, I read a well-thought-out comment from the other side of things that makes me retool my position. It’s not the norm, but it’s the only thing that has me thinking that there’s still hope for the world, yet. Since it’s otherwise few and far between that I meet someone from the other side of the political line who is willing and able to carry out an intelligent and courteous conversation about politics, I typically stay away from political discussions. Life is short, and I refuse to get stressed over dealing with idiots.

It’s also (sadly) rare that someone with completely opposite beliefs is able to show me a logical reason for their stance. Nine times out of ten, the other person tries to turn the conversation into something with religion at the core. Since the separation of church and state is central to the foundation of our government, any attempt to prove correctness based on religious ideals is fundamentally incorrect. So no political conversations will be had on this blog. I don’t even do them in my normal social media; I read through all of the comments on other peoples’ posts, but seldom add a comment.

The other thing that is never going to see the light of day on this blog is a conversation about abortion. I have very strong views on abortion, and they begin and end with the fact that everyone’s body is their own and the government should stay the hell out of my uterus. I live in the Deep South, and it’s pretty often that I’m confronted with some billboard or bumper sticker about saving babies. The same people who put up those billboards are proud to be calling for cutting off welfare, and think nothing of stripping more money from the educational system every year. So they’re basically saying that because their religion dictates it, it’s fine to force women through unwanted pregnancies, only to destroy any hope the baby or mother might have of rising from poverty. Yeah, that’s an astounding amount of kindness and compassion, right there. What about you take all of that energy you’re wasting sticking your nose into other people’s reproductive rights, and put it to better use on bigger problems, like student loan debt, education, homelessness, global warming, or the safety of our food and water supplies?

I see nothing wrong with holding a specific belief on either side of either coin. Whether you’re Republican, Democrat, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, or anything in the middle, I have nothing against you or your beliefs. My beliefs are mine, yours are yours, and that’s that. What I do have a problem with is if you’re rude or uninterested in finding out more about the world. I have enough stress in my life without having to deal with trolls. That’s why I don’t discuss these issues here or anywhere…and why I’ll definitely be cutting off comments on this blog post. 🙂