The Undiscovered Country

Dear Facebook: I'm De-friending You Until November

Don't take it personal though. It's not you. It's me.

I enjoyed keeping up with and hang out (virtually speaking), with my friends and family. We've even planned special events through you. I've been able to share some of my favorite conversations with and photographs of my son.

Admittedly, the constant status updates about the mundane daily happenings in someone's life gets a little tiresome. There's only so much I can read about an uncomfortable bowel movement before I get an attack of the yawns.

Still, that's better than the political graphics constantly splattered all over my page of late. Granted, I have used some of them in previous blog entries, so they haven't been a total waste. One I wrote in my paper journal, but have been too lazy to re-write in my blog. Mostly because I have some research to do on it yet.

What drove me away was a graphic that said, in short, if you don't have a vagina, you have no right to have an opinion on reproductive rights. You should therefore shut up. The tone of it bordered on vagina-worship. "Look at me! I have a vagina! I'm special because I have a vagina and you don't! I get to say whatever I want and you can't because I have a VAGINA!" All that because Republican representative Todd Akin made an astoundingly idiotic comment about how women who've been "legitimately raped" can't become pregnant.

This is what I wanted to scream at my computer:

Why is having one suddenly so important that women now have more valid opinions simply because of "an accident of DNA" than one who doesn't? Does the First Amendment now only apply to women? Should they no longer seek paternity tests and alimony? After all, based on what they're screaming, men have no right to opine on the rearing of their children. They can't, because they don't have that oh-so-special body part.

Oh, and I guess it doesn't take both a man and a woman to make a child. A woman can do that all by herself. Perhaps I should sue my biology teacher, sex-ed teacher and even my parents for getting such a basic thing as the cause of pregnancy all wrong.

That particular rant over.

When I visit you, Facebook, I don't want to be slapped in the face with graphics telling me that I hate women, don't want them to have any freedoms, am homophobic, hate blacks, immigrants, poor people, and am a "bitter-clinger", mind-numbed robot hypocrite, all because I vote Conservative, love Jesus and believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.

That constant, knee-jerk anger every time I log in is not good for me, not when all I want to do is keep up with my friends and family and share a funny story or photo.

I hope you understand, Facebook, and I promise to return after the election. I may even appreciate people discussing their bowel movements without yawning or stupefied drooling.

Andra