There it was. I had hear him say it. "Yeah I'm a Tonka party". This man, a man I have known my entire life, had revealed to me something that I should have very well been aware of: He was a member of the wrong political party! Being a card carrying member of the Mattel party myself, I found myself in a very difficult situation now. Because this man, my friend, my life long friend... was running for re-election for Sheriff in his county, and I was wanting to do everything I can in my power to endorse his election and reaffirm his place in his office.... But HOW?! How did it get past me that he was TONKA party???
Stacy and I had gone to High School together. I was probably closer to his older brother Steve, because we were the same age, and Stacy was a year younger. But we always hit it off. And as we grew older, Stacy and I found a lot more in common with each other. And, as with most people, you pull your friends from the pool of people that you share values with, and Stacy hit quite a few of my buttons. He still did. But I couldn't conceive how it was even possible that... TONKA PARTY???? All his values clearly reflected the Mattel party. I mean his stance on gun control and abortion and taxes... All very clearly Mattel Ideals. I guess I never asked or paid attention since we lived so far apart from each other.
SHERIFF STACY WEBER PICKS UP DEBRIS ON THE ROAD TO INSURE DRIVER SAFETY
I admit, our guy running for President is clearly a little off center. But Tonka party guy is just absolute whack. I mean how on earth could he possibly support that imbecilic air head? My head was just completely spinning as I uttered "Oh, I didn't realize you were Tonka Party". I still had him on the phone, and we were talking about his re-election down in Iowa. We finished our dialogue with a few exchanges about some upcoming plans and said our goodbyes. I hung up the phone in complete disbelief.
SHERIFF STACY WEBER RECALLS HIS FIRST VEHICLE, A CORVETTE THAT ALSO ENDED IT'S EXISTENCE IN A SIMILAR MANNER
Over the course of the next several days, I chewed it over in my head when I had some free moments. "There's no way". I would say to myself. He is SO Mattel party material. I mean he volunteers in the community, he goes out of his way to help people, he goes so far above and beyond... I would keep falling back to my analysis of my good friend right up until it finally hit me: He wasn't wrong, I was.
I had been completely discounting the possibility that it was entirely possible to have ideals and values that crossed party lines. I had been ignoring the fact that your political party affiliation really has less to do with your ideals than where you can find the most support to boost your campaign. I was ignoring the fact that it was completely possible for people who laid claim to a particular political party to have independent and individual beliefs and mindsets that fall outside of the party dictated ones. I had ignored that fact that my friend was his own person. With his own ideals. With his own beliefs and morals. I was ignoring the fact that my friend was human and made his own decisions.
The bigger problem is that this exact same thing is happening every day, in every city across this country. We are letting this mindset divide us. We are letting it prejudice (prej·u·dice: A pre-conceived notion or opinion) us against people we have never taken the time to actually get to know. People have lost friends over it. Loved ones fight and don't speak with each other. People are downright hostile to each other, sometimes violently. All because we want to assume that people are driven by the political party that affiliate with? Think about how absurd that really is.
If you are reading this, and you've made it this far, do yourself a favor, and make it a point to try to reserve judgement the next time you run into someone from the "wrong party". Just try it. Go out of your way to try to get to know them. They may surprise you and reveal that you have a lot more in common that you first thought. As for me, I'm going to go back and help my very dear friend Stacy in any way I can... He has a tough race this year against some filthy Mattel Member.
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