Why can't we all just be friends?

One of my favorite addictions is facebook (which I have actually been cheating on with Twitter lately but that is another story entirely.) I love connecting with old friends and being able to feel close to some of my friends who live far away. But something happened to me on facebook the other day that made me want to give it up entirely.

If you are friends with me on facebook, you are either someone I actually know in "real life" or know well enough "online" that I have requested or accepted your friendship. If you are friends with me on facebook, you have probably read my Info page and know that I am a Catholic right-leaning Republican. You also probably know that I don't *usually* post about polarizing political topics in my status updates. I believe that we are all entitled to our opinions and that we should be able to discuss and debate those opinions like adults, but *most* of the time, I do not engage the opposition.

Sometimes though, I feel inundated with leftist, liberal facebook statuses or posts. So much so that I start to feel attacked. And every once in a while, I cannot be quiet. I cannot let my voice be silent.

A facebook acquaintance posted something that riled me. I don't really want to get into what it was about here, it just went against one of my most passionate and core beliefs. I felt something rising up inside of me and I could not keep it in. I had to leave a comment. The problem was even bigger than the belief issue; he wrote, "Not trying to be political here..." and then proceeded to post a petition of Congress. How can a Congressional petition not be political? That doesn't make any sense.

So, I posted a rebuttal comment to his post with the sign off, "Not trying to be political? Yeah, right." A little while later I was still steaming about it and was curious as to how this person was going to respond to me.

He "Unfriended" me.

Now, this was not a person that I even remotely cared about keeping in touch with and probably should not have been friends with him on facebook in the first place, but it still stung. Did he just unfriend me because I voiced a dissenting opinion or because I called him out for politicking on facebook? Regardless, I know I am better off with him out of my News feed. But I still considered, for a half a second, saying goodbye to facebook and never looking back.

After that I took a good long hard look at who were my "Friends" on facebook and purged out the ones that really didn't need to be there. It was incredibly cleansing and I highly recommend it. Just don't unfriend me, okay? Not without saying goodbye!