Election time. The time when my Facebook newsfeed is full of everyone's opinions, people saying they don't want to see everyone's opinions & of course the many pretentious posts about people thinking they're better than everybody else because they may know a little bit more about what's going on. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about getting educated, especially about things that affect us all directly on a daily basis. But no, I don't really want to read your arrogant posts about you saying everyone else is an idiot for not having your same views.

But hey, I guess I'd rather have my newsfeed full of opinionated people that are at least watching the news every now and then (although unfortunately that probably includes Fox News half the time) than people going on about ridiculously idiotic reality tv shows like The Bachelor. Yes, political (& definitely sports) talk/rants > reality tv gossip BY FAR (funny how a person usually will fall under only one of those categories).

People always go on about how they "wish they could filter their newsfeed" or how they're sick of people blowing up their Facebook about a certain sports game and so on and so forth. Why don't you just get off Facebook maybe? Obviously I am one of the millions that are unable and unwilling to delete my Facebook, but I am also not bitching about how much I hate it. Perhaps I am right now, I suppose, but at least it's not on Facebook exactly? The reason I like blogging is that people have more of a choice whether or not they want to read what I have to say. Granted, we all have always had this choice but Mark Zuckerburg somehow convinced us otherwise. But you know what I mean. It's not deliberately in everyone's faces.

So my actual intention of this post - before I started ranting about how annoying people are - is to say that we are all actually very blessed to be able to have different opinions. We are lucky to be living in a country where we are able to contribute to the laws that are passed and the people who ultimately represent us. A lot of people think that the electoral college is stupid and that it doesn't give us a real vote or that there's no point in voting because it won't make a difference. But if everyone thought that way, then it would make a HUGE difference. Not all of us live in Ohio, but there IS more to voting than just voting for president. (And imagine what a nightmare it would be if every democrat in California decided that their vote didn't matter.)

We will all never agree on everything, especially on who we think is fit to be president, but that's the beauty of our country - that we're perfectly entitled and have a right to our opinions.

I've been traveling around Southeast Asia and have never felt so blessed to be an American. You don't realize how lucky you are until you're walking around third world countries and see the mass amounts of poverty. Until you see dozens of families sleeping in the dirt with infants cradled in their arms. And then you go back to your hotel room when it starts pouring down rain and you have no idea how that family manages storms like that on a regular basis without shelter.

In America a lot of people won't give money to homeless people mainly because they'll probably just spend it on booze. Some people say that they put themselves there because of drinking or drugs. Don't get me wrong, I usually have the same opinions. But I've never seen poverty like the Philippines. Where you know that they didn't choose the life they have. There wasn't a choice - that's just life.

We are all so lucky to live in a country where we have so many rights and freedoms. A country that fights to keep the poverty level and unemployment rate down. It might seem silly to compare The United Stated to third world countries, but the point is that we're lucky. That's all. People in a lot of these countries know nothing about the kind of freedom we are privileged to have.

So I try to consider that more before I open my mouth and argue about a stupid "NObama" post. Everyone has a right to their own opinion, no matter how idiotic or ignorantly they may display it. At least they have an opinion.