On Meeting People for the First Time.

On meeting people for the first time. Or the last.

Nowadays? Politics is everything.

Political correctness and one's attachment or detachment to it or from it has become an invaluable tool for assessing who's friendly, who's your friend, and who isn't. Introduce me to anyone and in a matter of moments or minutes, I'll know whether you're liberal, conservative, or generally don't give a damn.

My entire response to that person, or further acknowledgement of them, will then be based entirely on their view of the world and what role, if any, politics plays in their life. How sad that it has come to this. Maybe it's always been that way and I was the one who just didn't give a damn. Now I do and it may be too late, for the image that now appears before me is a nation on the brink of a new civil war.

I, for one, want to know the color of another person's uniform, whether blue, grey, or oblivious.