The title says it all, right?  I’m female, older, heterosexual, I teach and this gives you an idea that I teach in a relatively large system in a sparsely populated mid-western state, which may or may not be a good thing.  It immediately puts me into many different silos, and you can make many assumptions because of it.  Despite its relatively short length, it seems a bit much in terms of information, and perhaps a little too personal.  However, I didn’t create this on my own.  I was reading an article about Pete Buttigieg who is running for President and this is exactly how he is introduced in the article:

…Pete Buttigieg, the 37 year old openly gay mayor of the fourth largest city in Indiana….

We begin to make assumptions, don’t we?  37 years old?  Is he too young?  Does he have enough experience?  Openly gay.  Does that have anything to do with the qualifications he needs in order to govern or is it a political statement meant to separate once again?  The fourth largest city in Indiana.  Does the size of the city matter or can we assume that since it is only the 4th largest that he hasn’t governed anything large enough to do the job?  Based on that run-on sentence, we learn a lot, but is it really who this person is?

The description doesn’t mention anything in terms of his background, his academic qualifications or his character.  Is this person ethical, honest, a hard worker?  Is he kind, does he listen to others, and how does he make decisions?  These are the things we need to know, but it’s much easier to look at the outside and describe what we see and not take the time to look at the inside and describe what we’ve experienced.

Think about it.  Put yourself in his place like I did.  This makes you vulnerable and allows people to make assumptions about you that is anything but complete and may or may not be true.  It’s a little like our profiles on social media.  We list those things that are the obvious, but not so much that we actually allow someone to get to know us.  Again, easy and safe.

Look, I’m not making ANY kind of political statement here, and I have no idea at this point who I’m planning to vote for within any party (and I’m not sharing because it’s not anyone’s business), but I am reading as much as I can about everyone from every angle I can find and what I tend to find is either descriptions like this or something that rips the candidate apart.  Very seldom does anyone say, “so-and-so is a hard worker, not perfect – nobody is – but he/she will do their very best to earn your trust and do their very best.”  Not even the candidates themselves are willing to say anything positive.  They’re too busy ripping each other apart, to look “tough” I suppose.  It doesn’t do a whole lot for those of us who are trying to make decisions here, and honestly I’m not looking for a WWE match here or anything.  I’m just looking for a kind, honest person who will do the job to best of their ability, thinking more about others than themselves.

I suppose there is a little bit (or a lot) of ego involved here because these are people who believe they can be PRESIDENT.  They have to believe in themselves quite a bit, or have others who believe in them enough to encourage them to run.  A little bit of ego can be healthy I suppose, but when the ego gets in the way of debating in a civil way, opening up the way for yelling at and insulting each other instead of stating what they believe they can do, that’s a problem.  It’s also a problem when candidates can do nothing more than defend themselves from other candidates rather than share the things that we as voters need to know.

So, to all the future article writers out there, please do us a favor and try looking below the surface for once.  We may find something worth learning about and maybe, just maybe, find a candidate worth voting for.