Good News vs. good news

I read a post someone wrote related to all the things happening at the hands of the new administration. The person asked what those who voted for the president were looking for. That seems like a legitimate question. I was hoping there would be dialogue. I was hoping there would be listening to understand. Then I read the comments and was instantly disappointed. It’s like being woken up from a deep sleep all of sudden.

Somebody did respond to the question. I’ll give them credit for that. They listed a variety of reasons they voted for the president. The responder did something that I haven’t seen in a while on such political posts — they didn’t attack the opposition. Again, I was pleasantly surprised. But then people responded to this person’s comments and well, you can guess what happened.

I think the most interesting part of this responder’s comment was one statement — they said they voted for the president in order to hear “good news,” which apparently wasn’t something they felt they received in the last administration.

Good news. Hmmm. This answer was a bit unexpected. I was actually quite fascinated by the answer. And even this answer reinforced something that I have observed of late — that we’re all using the same language, but we aren’t. We are speaking English, saying the same phrases and using the same words, but our definitions of these terms are not only different, but often in direct conflict with each other.