Facebook -- In My Political Opinion

Just thinking about Facebook and politics.  People often tell me that they don't think it's appropriate to discuss politics online, or it's not worth it, and it's beneath them anyway.  They are entitled to their opinions and other people are entitled to theirs, and we should just leave well enough alone and keep our separate opinions to ourselves.  Besides, we should all just be loving anyway -- especially if we're Christian and love Jesus.  Loving people means only posting loving Scriptural verses or writing about how much you love people and how much God loves them and you.  Expressing an opinion politically is somehow beneath us or crass or something.  

Warning: this is not a cliche!  Here it is -- we are truly blessed as a nation to have freedom of speech.  And freedom of speech is not important just because it allows us to share pictures of our friends or stories about our cats or because it lets us use humor in  "inappropriate" or life-revealing ways.  Freedom of speech is so precious  because it allows us to share our world and life opinions.  The ability to share and discuss opinions and the reasoning behind those opinions is essential to our freedom.  Not only is it essential, but even though some might find it boring, tedious, or irrelevant, it is our responsibility to engage on this political level so we can truly be self-governing and not just governed.  

I really don't like posting political posts at all, truthfully.  I hate to be hated.  I just want to be loved!  (Don't we all?)  I read recently a history of Abraham Lincoln, which described how hated and vilified Lincoln was, especially and particularly by many people in the Union.  But over a hundred years later, when his wallet, which had been stored in the Library of Congress, was opened, the people discovered several newspaper clippings that praised him tucked away in there.  Lincoln struggled with the negatives; and he saved the positives.  

All of us, even our greatest president, want to be liked.  I would prefer to only post innocuous posts and to keep a very low profile and only have people "like" me all the time.  So many times I'll post something, and then I will virtually duck and cover so I don't have to read all the negative comments in response. But sometimes, as citizens, we have to put our beliefs out there and engage and say what we think.  Silence and staying under cover is easier, but it does not show courage.   And we need to use courage by exercising our freedom of speech meaningfully.  If we don't exercise our freedom, we will lose it.  Kind of like if we don't exercise our svelte bodies, we will lose them...  Okay, maybe not the best analogy, but, hey, it's my opinion.  And don't knock me for exercising my freedom!