Another Blue Dot on the Road

This came to me as I was driving down the road last night. As I was driving down Darby Dr. I noticed a a big blue dot surrounded by red on the front tag of a white car. I then scanned up and realized it was the car of my friend Christa Waldrop. I then proceeded to text her and see what her plans are for the evening. I told her that I noticed her blue dot before I noticed it was her so maybe that was metaphorical to how others view people and their political identity.
First of all let me talk about my friend Christa. I didn't become actual friends with her until the Spring 2009 semester. We both are Public Relations majors with Political Science minors, we are both Greek, we have many mutual friends, and we both have had a massive desire to live in "the district" for most of our young adult life if not before. The fact that we did not encounter sooner is fascinating on such a small campus as UNA. We both interned in Washington DC
this past summer and shared an experience that no one can fully understand but us.
The strange thing about Christa and I are is the fact that she is a Democrat and I am a Republican. To most people that would seem as if we are different as night and day. When seeing someones political affiliation most people immediately form an opinion about who they are. If people learn that I am in fact a Republican they would identify me as gun carrying, let's give them the death penalty and bomb another country while not allowing women to make decisions about their own body while lowering taxes and running up debt higher person. And if they see that Christa labels herself as a Democrat she is in fact a tree hugging, giving out welfare left and right, let's go green and make upper-class pay for everything while driving my Prius and legalizing marijuana girl. These labels are just that, labels. They don't even scratch the service on
who I am or who Christa are as people. I wonder sometimes if we should align oneself with a specific party due to these reasons. I also disagree with things within the Republican party as I know that Christa is not entirely a full fledged, aligned all the way to the left Democrat.

When I saw that blue dot on Christa's car I saw her as a Democrat before I looked further into it and saw her as an actual person with history and a story to tell just like me. We believe what we believe for personal, historical reasons. We need to look passed the bumper stickers and the Facebook party affiliations and learn about the person so we can better appreciate the people
around us in our life. Christa and I are way more alike than we are different as are many people in this world. One of my favorite books is All is Fair in Love, War, and Running for President by James Carville and Mary Matalin. In the book they talk about how people don't understand how their marriage can work when they  believe in two different ideologies so strongly. They respond  by talking about how that is their work and when they go home they are much more than that. They are people who jog together, eat good food, and the fact that they are both so passionate about their work is what drew them together in the first place. They may be passionate about two different things, but passion is passion.

More people would be friends in this world if they would even consider looking past the R and D got to know the person behind the label before making judgment.