What the Fuck Was I Thinking?

One day I decided to respond to the comments about Jeff Dusenbury in the Alaska Dispatch News. As anyone with half a brain will tell you, the comments section of any news outlet is the Afghanistan of reasoned thought. You may go in with the best of intentions, but the only way to win is to outlast everyone else. Outlasting a determined, dogmatic, willfully ignorant, and entrenched foe is next to impossible in that environment. Eventually their lack of a meaningful life will overcome your motivation to provide a balanced perspective.
 
Then I did the unthinkable. I wrote a letter to the editor. After a week, it wasn't published, so I figured they'd tired of the subject and were more concerned about what color socks Obama was wearing during his visit to Seward.
 
Then they published it.
 
I had committed ground troops to an unwinnable war. Just poor strategic planning on my part. The only saving grace seems to be the idiot commenters are outnumbered at the moment, as their allies are focused on Obama renaming a mountain after the Kenyan word for "black power". It must be true, because I heard about it on talk radio.
 
The whole world is polarized, and each side is convinced that the other is evil, stupid, and secretly plotting to do something horrible. I'm tired of it. I'm already planning my exit strategy. Something about "retreat with honor" or "taking my marbles and going home".
 
I just want to ride my bike. I'd rather not be hit by a drunk driver. I'd like to come home to my family. I'd like to live a long, healthy life, full of adventure and the occasional bacon and carbohydrates binge. I'd like for my fellow citizens to behave in a civil and respectful manner. Is that really a lot to ask?
 
Apparently so.

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