What if your neighbour is a Democrat!

I am wondering what it must be like to be a Tea Partier in the USA, living next door to a Democrat, especially if that Democrat is a fervent supporter of Obama's health care reform.

Must be kind of scary to know that your neighbour is probably lining you up for review by the death panels of government-run socialized medicine. I mean, here you are going to the same church, kids going to the same schools, playing in the same bowling league, sharing garden and handi-man tools, sharing a good fence and that Democrat is lining you up for extermination by the health reform death panels!

Gives one pause, doesn't it?

Does all that sound patently absurd? That's because it is. These are your trusted neighbours for goodness' sake! There's no way these people with whom you have shared the trust of looking after each other's kids can be part of such a policy, yet the Tea Partiers are saying this is part of the hidden agenda of public health care supported by those same neighbours!

All I'm asking people to do is think about this. Many of these conspiracy theorists sound just plain crazy and few crazier than the Tea-Partiers. And, I think this is exactly one of the reasons why we must respect others' opinions for public policy instead of slagging them with out of this world conspiracy theories. Without that mutual respect, society collapses into chaotic anarchy. The last millennia of human development will be for naught.

Mike