Hey Mister, Stop Talking to My Brother

I have a proposal; I say that every Sunday will be my personal rant day. I think that it'll be a good way for me to vent without dumping cyanide into someone's backyard.

Here's the rock in my shoe for the week.

Close minded right wingers.

No no wait, close minded right wingers who think they know what they're talking about just because they watch FOX News and listen to Bill O'Reilly.

May I please say something?

Ya don't!

Here's the setup:

So we'll call the family in question, the Smiths. Now my mom and dad are pretty good friends with Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and who wouldn't be? They're smart, successful, and they have four really well raised children. (Well for the most part, but that's a whole 'nother Saturday post.)

One of their sons, (we'll call him Jim) is also super close with my little brother, Jason, and there isn't a single week when he's not over at their house for a couple of hours. In fact, my dad likes to joke that Jason has a second family, which is the Smiths.

Since their family also swims with the same club as us, we all carpool together. (Ya know, saving the environment and all of that good stuff.) However, I've been swimming for my high school the last couple of months so I haven't been able to see or speak to the Smiths for a while.

Before I really begin, you have to keep in mind that the Smiths are hard core Jesus freaks. I mean that in the nicest way possible... but I can't help that it has a negative connotation. They're almost the textbook stereotype of what a perfect Christian family should be: go to church every Wednesday and Sunday, bring 3 or 4 dishes to the church potlucks, hold monthly bible studies in their house complete with milk and cookies, they're white, they homeschool their children, and they send cutesy little greeting cards every Christmas with a dove and a harp on the cover and the words, "Jesus loves you!"

Oh, and they're severely right wing. They're so right, they make the encyclopedia wrong.

But really, I mean this in the nicest way possible because up until today, I had a pretty high view of them.

However, it just so happened that today I needed to hitch a ride with them so I could help teach swim lessons at the pool. While I'm in the car, I'm sort of bemused to hear all the angelic Smith children in the back seat counting all of the campaign signs in yards. It sort of went like this:

"McCain/Palin! Oh look, another McCain Palin!... Obama... Obama... yay McCain/Palin!" And here's the kicker, the kids actually think that McCain will win the Presidency because he has more plastic tarp on one block with his name on it.

And the whole time, Mr. Smith is just smiling, not saying a word.

Then cute little Gabrielle Smith turns and says, "Did yoo know, that Obamaa wount even raise his heand for Gawd?"

And Mr. Smith nods his head and says, "I know hon."

WHAT?

And this isn't even half of it.

When my brother came home today we got to talking about Obama and I found out that he thought Obama was a Muslim.

My own brother, I'm seriously so embarrassed right now.

And I guess that the Smiths have told him that Obama doesn't support Christians and that he's generally the worst thing that can happen to this country.

The worst thing?

Hmm... I'm not so sure about that. Have they never heard about AIDS? Nuclear bombs? Hell, I'm sure that Armaggeddon might be just a little worse than having Obama as our next President.

Honestly, I don't give a damn if you have your opinions. In fact, go ahead! Tell my brother, tell my friends! But this has to qualify as brainwashing.

And you know what sucks? It's not even educated, fact based brainwashing. It's the result of bias, prejudice, and basically a blindness.

I also would really like to press the truth, while he may have been raised in a very diverse in terms of religious sort of atmosphere (his mom was Christian, father was a Muslim turned atheist, he went to a Muslim school and then attended a Catholic one), he joined a Baptist church community... so I'm sort of thinking that this means he is Christian, not a Satanic Muslim hellbent on bombing us all to Mars.

Of course, his religious affiliation shouldn't even have anything to do with his campaign. Would it really matter if he were Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or any other religion? Don't the majority of all the major world religions basically stress the same values and ethics? And since America was pretty much based on freedom of religion, I don't think that any Presidential candidate should be prosecuted just because of the religion that they practice. (Well of course, there would be some exceptions, say... Voodoo)

Anyways, I'm sorry for the lengthy post. My fingers are tired, but I'm definitely a bit more peaceful at mind now.

But still a little ticked. I can't wait to see their faces when Obama wins this Tuesday.