I might be getting caught up in the drama

As I look at my attempts to get people together for our own little neighborhood 9/12 project, listen daily to Glenn Beck's radio program and just about any other conservative radio show in our area, watch my blood pressure goes up, and feel like my head might actually explode, I have to wonder if maybe I'm getting sucked into the vortex of a drama or if this is just my version of caring about the future.

This might explain my reluctance to call myself a "leader" in a movement meant to rein in the recklessness of a government that seems to be drunk on its own power. In both our meetings to date, I was careful to emphasize that this wasn't about me. I wanted to make sure that everyone knew that if they had something to say, I wasn't going to let that voice get stifled. I'm just now wondering if maybe I should be stifling my own a little more.

I wonder these things because I know my propensity to get caught up in drama. When I started the Carterville 9/12 Project, I committed to myself to be level-headed, to look at the facts, to be bound by principles in how I act and by nothing else. So I'm stepping back now and taking a look at myself, at my actions, my words, my direction.

So I ask: Is it just me, or is this government really being reckless with their power? Am I buying into a crazy right-wing conspiracy to start some kind of new revolutionary war which just isn't at that point yet?

When I was a new parent, stark warnings seemed to come from every angle to not shake the baby, no matter how frustrated I got. With our first child, I couldn't really understand how anybody could ever shake their own child and inflict life-threatening injuries. Then we had our second, bless her heart. She cried loud, long, and often as an infant. I finally got to that point where I understood how a father or mother could lose their cool and shake their precious child. I was close. I put our daughter down quickly and walked away. I understood how it could happen, and it scared me. (I love her with all my heart even though, to this day six years later, I find myself getting comparably upset and have to give myself a time-out.)

A father who will not put some distance between himself and his wailing child, and allows himself to get caught up in the "drama," could very well act rashly and do irreversible damage to his precious child. I may not be able to imagine myself taking up my arms and going out against our government now, but who is to say that someone who is normally calm and level-headed and unlikely to rise up in rebellion would never do that under certain circumstances?

Thus, we must all be very deliberate, careful, and measured in our attitudes and actions. Temperance and moderation must prevail in all conditions. Heaven knows, it isn't prevailing in the halls of Congress or in the White House.