When 140 Characters Is Not Enough

I love Twitter! I'd tweet all day long if I didn't have other responsibilities. I can't get enough of it. I love sharing my thoughts, opinions and ideas with anyone who is willing to listen. And, yes, I love a spirited exchange of thoughts, opinions and ideas. I don't debate. I don't argue. I don't fuss or fight. I simply share information and my take on that information.

The only problem with Twitter is that 140 characters is all its users are given to express themselves. I understand the concept, but it would be nice to be able to share more at one time. Because of this, I am responding here to a few tweets from one of my Twitter friends. He and I had a nice discussion about politics and I would like to better explain my tweets back to him. For the record, I like him and will not speak badly of him. We disagree and that is fine with me.

This is a tweet from him: "Interesting how you choose which pieces of information you'd like to relay." Another tweet was "[A]gain, taking isolated data and using it for an agenda..." Between those tweets he added the following: "Nice blog...respectable and well spoken."

For the record, we are tweeting about ObamaCare. I don't like it and he, from his tweets, appears to be in favor of it. I'm assuming this is the blog he was tweeting about, seeing I didn't send him links to my other two blogs. I also want to add that it was quite classy of him to speak kindly of my blog even though he disagrees with it. I think (I hope) he understands I'm not bashing all those who don't believe like I do. That has never been my intention and it never will be.

Responding to the first tweet I mentioned - about choosing which info I relay. I share information that I find interesting. I tweet things I believe in. I tweet information that I feel is true and accurate. I'm human, so I may tweet things that aren't. If I am aware I've done that, I correct it as quickly as possible - going as far as deleting the misinformation from my tweet stream. I do poke fun at political figures at times. Right now I am on a kick about Al Gore, the inventor of the internet and big global warming fighter. I found him to be funny from the time Bill Clinton chose him as vice-president and, as time goes by, Gore gets even funny for me. Not the man, of course. Obviously he isn't funny, but what he says and does is quite hilarious to me. Anyway...When I tweet, I refuse to use certain names. You'll see me giving free publicity to that talk show host, soon to be retiring, that got BamBam elected. You know her name, but I'm not mentioning it even though this blog might get picked up by more search engines if I did.

As for the second tweet I mentioned - the one about "isolated data" and "an agenda." Of course I tweet isolated data. I don't know all the stories. I don't know all the people. Brace yourself for this - I don't have all the facts. I tweet what I know. Personally, I don't like statistics and polls. I don't know how accurate they are. They change constantly. I don't know who is coming up with the stats and who is conducting the polls. The only poll I've ever been involved with was a taste test between Pepsi and Coke, conducted by Pepsi, at the Oklahoma State Fair. I chose Coke, but my answer was thrown out because I was holding a cup with Coke printed on it. That cup contained lemonade, but I wasn't allowed to tell them that. That makes me wonder if the polls aren't one-sided - AKA tainted. Sorry, but that experience stuck with me and makes me leery of all polls.

As for my "agenda..." Yes, I have one. I want to express myself. I want others to express themselves. I want to learn from their information. I want them to learn from my information. I think that is an excellent way to find some middle ground - find something that we agree on and start a conversation. Don't get me wrong; I want it my way and I want it my way yesterday - if not last week. We all do. Unfortunately, we don't live in EmmaRileySuttonville, so I don't get it my way. I don't live in LaLa Land either. I know we have to compromise to exist together. Trust me, I'm married; compromising is the only way to make things work.

As you have probably noticed, I haven't mentioned the name of my Twitter friend. I don't think I've said anything negative about him. I value his opinion. I believe (and know) he has the right to have that opinion and express it. I will send him a tweet with the URL to this post. I hope he responds. I'd love to know what he thinks. We could have another non-mud slinging, intelligent and spirited exchange of ideas. I'm not going to change his mind. He isn't going to change my mind. That's fine with me. We can find something that we both believe in, working together like adults who respect each other, and find answers to all the problems we face. Okay, that was a bit "LaLa Land-ish," but we could at least try.

Do you think our elected senators and congress persons could do that? It's a novel idea. Here's another novel idea: Get those folks to agree that water is wet and the sun sets in the west. Then they could move on to bigger things they agree on like War and Peace is a long book. If they did that, they might be able to find ways to lower the unemployment rate, get our country out of debt and give our children safe and educational schools to go to. Maybe I do live in LaLa Land, but wouldn't that be nifty?