Peter Gabriel, has a song on the Secret World Live CD, (an awesome CD, by the way) entitled Digging in the Dirt. "I've been diggin in the dirt,To find the places I got hurt, to open up the places I got hurt".
The third estate,the news media, during a political year find it necessary to dig in the dirt of candidates and their families past in an effort to color our perceptions. Its a game we all play to build ourselves up at the expense of others, and, as Steve Brown used to say, it comes out of a pit and smells like smoke. Scandal mongering, tearing good people down, innuendo, gossip, half truths.
The danger comes from our tempation to twist those facts into the worst possible sordid story. So they are diggin for the sermons of the pastor of Sarah Palin's Church to find right wing stuff. Most of us grow through our mess ups and mistakes, and we revisit them for healing, but when others dig in your dirt, you can be sure it is to create further damage. I don't like it in either party.
It is way too easy to slip into the dirt diggin mode and wallow in it. I want my speech to be full of grace and building people up. It is hard, it is needed.
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