krm's cataloging; uncatalogued

 This presidential election, man.

I am Bernie Sanders girl. I have 'Felt the Bern' tenfold and shared political posts a-plenty on my Facebook, all the while carrying on about the evils of Donald J. Drumpf.  I've also taken this season to be more bold in my liberal opinions in my rather conservative environment.  Even though my friend list includes a number of my like-minded peers, it's not difficult to imagine the various repercussions of such boldness, the sensitive toes I've stepped on.

Not that I haven't been sensitive either.  A friend of mine notes that I've been rather politically rampant, quick to lose my temper as of late.  She inquired if anything was wrong.  I had answered that nothing outside the usual.  The Constant Misery; Depression.

I find myself with a decreased number of Facebook friends, not that social media "friends" is actually a true indicator of self-worth and value.  Some of these friends were eliminated by my hand, and some as well by their own.

I'm not troubled.  Well, perhaps a little.  Each incident I've deleted someone from my Facebook was because I did not personally know the individuals and had no interest in ensuing arguments with these people.  One person was deleted who I did know personally--and have for several years--because they had no interest in maintaining a friendship or even a civil acquaintanceship, but rather an interest in instigating problems.

This is not the first time I've cut people out of my life as of late.  And though its first experience may be regretful, it gets easier to cut away the negativity. But the question is, the source of this negativity.

Just as the upcoming election has encouraged me to be more vocal about my political ideologies, it has caused others to do the same.  Maybe its for the best that I have ceased contact with these people, and vice versa.  But I also find it a small degree disappointing that I, and others, decided that our own pride is worth more than getting familiar with another human being.

But perhaps getting familiar with another human, in some instances, is not worth the cost of such negativity and cruelty. Don't let this divide you.

(From a few days ago...) Excuse me while I step on my soap box here.

"Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect. . . . A problem can no longer be pursued with impunity to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; (s)he becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin."
Justice William O. Douglas,
United States Supreme Court:
Adler v. Board of Education, 1951.

Censorship was a discussion in my Young Adult Literature class today, but I believe this line of thinking can be similarly applied to a lot of current issues swirling through *current*, current events and especially science.

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