More than a thought

I am within two hundred hours of completing my paramedic ride time. I have cut back on the amount of work I am doing, so I can get some rest in between my thirty six hour rotations. I work twenty four hours at the firehouse and then go directly to a twelve hour shift on the ambulance. This leaves me with a day off, adn I really need the rest.

The wife and I witnessed the lack luster Vice-presidential debate last night. I encourage everyone to check FactCheck.org for debunked missteps taken by both candidates. I am finding that Kentucky really is a Republican state. One co-worker today said with conviction that he absolutly would not vote for Obama because he is a muslim. I attempted to point out that he was a christian, and all the flack Obama was taking for the outbursts of his pastor. The co-worker just said that there are also gay men that are married with children. Well there goes a few decades of tolerance and civil rights down the drain.

How can anyone think that an entire individual can be summed up by one statement, made by spin services trying to discredit, and maim his name? Some other people I work around have made similar statements about the Democratic candidate. Americans really don't care for subtleties. We want one word answers and catchy tag lines (but mostly we want people to think for us).

There is nothing that is so easy to summarize. Black and white does not exist we are all shades of gray. Life is not simple and easy, sometimes the right decision to make is not the most popular nor the "morally" rightous one. Is this why a religion where a person reads the text and tells us what to think is the most popular? Ok yes really most religions are akin to that statement. I prefer to decifer the information on my own, and thats why I like the philosophy of Daoism. No one here to tell me how to think, and no easy answers. My job and my philosophy requires me to make decisions based on the "evidence" before me, wether they are signs and symptoms of a medical problem, or I am seeking the wisdom to make a personal decision (not to worry, I am just triping the light fantastic, not planning anything). There are cases where the right call is to let someone die. Yes the right decision is not always the right decision. You get used to this, and living in my world of gray.