Welcome!

Hello, everyone, and welcome to my blog.  Although I'm going to focus on political and social issues...and it will become very obvious where I stand within the political spectrum...it is not my intention to alienate anyone.

An old friend of mine once started a program of self-improvement, and after the first couple of meetings, she shared with us that one of the principles being taught was that you cannot make yourself better by proving someone else wrong.  Therefore, when I talk about issues that so often divide the political parties, I am not trying to make anyone 'wrong'.

While studying Shakespeare in high school, we did an exercise known as long criticism.  We were given a passage from one of Shakespeare's plays, and were asked to write an essay breaking down his language, meter, style, and vocabulary, and we were strongly encouraged to write at least one sentence on almost every single word.  It taught me to examine everything in order to understand what Shakespeare wrote.  I always thought that was a very profound idea, and I will try to keep it in mind as I continue this series.

My aim in this blog is not, therefore, to make anyone 'wrong'.  I hope to show how what we do, or how we think, can be influenced, for good or ill, by what we are taught.

All I want anyone to do is to think about it!