When I was in high school, I was the Alex P. Keaton of the Family Ties family in our home. I couldn't wait to vote in my first presidential election - I voted for Reagan. Alex would have been so proud. My parents groaned when I called them from college and told them I voted straight Republican. All I'll share about my politics now, is that I am neither a registered Republican, nor a Democrat. I'm an Independent, and please don't riff on politics. I can't hang right now. I need to do more homework.
As I got a little older and fiddled around on the dark side in college, my mind opened in new ways. However, I've always been able to slip back into my Alex P. Keaton mode and say things to my parents and brother to get a reaction (my brother was the boy version of Mallory Keaton). My family knows I'm doing it to be a poke in the eye - it's just ornery fun. I'm not bigoted towards any group of people, except maybe "bad" people. (I suppose I struggle with a few judgments here and there.)
A friend recently emailed me a knock-knock joke that was pushing the bounds of good taste. In the current election, there are a few "-ism's" that are being targeted via cheap jokes. Ageism, racism, sexism, homophobia, multiculturalism... The knock-knock joke pinged an "ism". I did not agree with the joke, but like Larry the Cable Guy says, "I don't care who you are, that's funny right there."
I didn't forward this joke to anyone else, but I did to Mom and Dad, knowing as they opened and read it, they'd wonder where they'd gone wrong.
Mom's exact email response:
"I'm trying to figure out how to get this out of my computer, so it won't surface after I die......"
To coin one more Larry the Cable Guy phrase, "Lord, I apologize for that right there, and please be with the starvin' pygmies down there in New Guinea, A-men."
