Talking heads

Tis the season of political ads. They have been especially prolific on television and some are getting very old and tiresome. Very tiresome. I know some people are muting the political commercials. It does no good to change the channel because nearly every station is carrying the same ones. It's like they follow you around and the talking heads just keep spitting out the nasty messages.

I'm all for the political process and I vote in nearly every election because I cherish our rights to take a stand and count in the decisions being made. I even went so far as to run for a county position back in my younger and less wise days.  There were no television ads to buy, thankfully. My budget wouldn't have supported it and my target audience wasn't watching any one station. I used one-on-one contact by going door to door, attending all the community parades that year of centennials, spoke at many club meetings, and tried a couple of newspaper ads. I lost but gave it a pretty good try.

"I can do all this through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13 NIV).

My campaign was far different than those running the ads on TV this fall.  I'm not sure I've ever seen such vicious attacks and use of half-truths, exaggerated photos, figures from thin air, and fabricated stories that give such a misleading messages by both sides of the races. It's really sad to see the lengths the candidates have gone to to try to win the election.

I'm hoping the winners are Christians and they can remember the words from Matthew 5:11-12 NIV: "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

What bothers me most is thinking of what good the money they spent on ads could have done if used in another way.