Why I Wear a Blue Wrist Band

Why I wear a blue wristband

I am wearing a blue wristband these days. It is the blue wristband from thinkblue.org. People ask me about the blue wristband: “What is that,” they’ll say, “is it for the Chicago Cubs?” Since I live in the Chicago area, I guess that is a logical question. My answer is a polite, “No, it’s not for the Chicago Cubs. It is my way of saying I’m one of those old-fashioned liberals that Rush Limbaugh loves to hate.”

That I am now wearing this blue wristband and making such a pointed declaration is, for those who know me, very out of character. Why? Because for most of my adult life --- which is a few years, as I turned 64 on my last birthday --- I have been a political independent. Although I definitely had liberal leanings, especially on social issues, I was proud to tell people I had never voted a straight ticket in my life, and, in fact, was not a registered member of any political party. Which was true. It was also consistent with two of my essential philosophical beliefs, which were:

- First, a live and let live approach toward other people. Even though we might not agree on something, if your belief worked for you, then that was OK with me. I was, I thought, respecting that person’s uniqueness.

- Second, that most issues were not a matter of black and white, but had shades of gray. Time and again life had demonstrated to me that the simple answer was rarely the right one, that things were almost always more complicated than they seemed.

This was who I was. And, for most of my adult life I felt that most people were more or less in the same place.

Today I wear the blue wristband because I feel as if my political independence, my live and let live attitude, my shades of gray approach, in essence, who I am as a person, is under direct attack. I use Rush as my excuse for wearing the blue wristband because he is a convenient foil, because he is a simple image that people can immediately identify with. (As an aside, interestingly, even though I have no doubt most people know exactly what I mean with my Rush metaphor, the most common reaction I get is a noncommittal, “Oh,” followed by an immediate subject change.)

However, when Rush and his far-right political cronies day after day, year after year, rant that liberals like me are to blame for everything that is wrong, that liberals like me are traitors, that liberals like me need to be silenced because we don’t agree with them --- “you’re either with me or against me,” there’s no compromise! --- paranoid though it may seem, I feel as if I’m being attacked.

So, a year ago I started wearing the blue wristband as a visual statement for those who cared to see it and understand. Today I have started this blog for those who care to listen and understand.