WOW we are barely a week out of the gate and the first test of how Arkansas legislators will work with TEA Parties has been a success. On Thursday we got word through the AP that Senator Elect Boozman was “undecided” on the ban of earmarks, which sent colossal reaction through the web-o-sphere.
Imagine for a moment how many times you have formed a misimpression or mistaken conclusion because you failed to think-through, or seek out, the actual facts of a situation in your life. Most people will do this without thinking, or realizing the mistake they are making by acting with inadequate information.
Add to that the fact that today, more than ever in our nation’s history, there are groups of people who want you to act out of emotion rather than rational thought. They intentionally spread falsehoods and half truths just to elicit a knee-jerk reaction. The last thing they want others to do is thinking or taking time to check the facts before they spread misinformation, or act on the untruths.
This situation is only aggravated by the fact that anyone with a laptop or an I-phone is able to misinform thousands of others at a moment’s notice – even intentionally.
In fact, it actually wouldn’t be much of a stretch at all to say that most of us make daily decisions affecting our lives based on inadequate or incomplete information. So my obligation to inform myself as completely as possible stretches well beyond the world of politics.
My hope is that we, The TEA Party people in Arkansas want to be the people who are rational, deal with facts and resist the urge to go on rants based on misconceptions and emotion, giving way to the forces that seek to divide us, are desirous of us being reactionary and unproductive.
The truth is if we want to keep our ability to be effective and fruitful we must stop reacting to sound bites and spinning people up when we don’t have all the information. We are going to have to practice patience, thoughtfulness and diligence.
From speaking with Senator Elect Boozman last night and this morning I am convinced he did exactly what the people of Arkansas mandated he do since winning in the landslide election on Nov 2nd , took time to read the bill, spent 2 hours (just that I know of) on the phone listening to the concerns of his constituents and did his due diligence.
I for one appreciate Senator Elect Boozman’s willingness not to be reactionary and to want to know more about what he is getting us into.
I am hopeful that if we come alongside our representatives, instead of constantly laying for them to get caught, we will make change. But if we are more interested in arguments and headlines then we will not accomplish much for all the hard work that has been done~
