My New Shirt

When I got back from the AHECTA conference a few weeks ago I had a lot of mail to sort through from having been gone for over a week. There was one large cushy envelope, the kind that’s padded, which I went for immediately. Inside was a real nice black “Fox News” t-shirt. Fox News is a corporate sponsor of AHECTA and I think they sent these shirts to everyone who visited their booth. This shirt has a nice embroidered logo over the left breast and another one on the right sleeve. As swag goes, this was top shelf. But Fox News? Could I wear a shirt from a network that airs Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly with pride?

Now before you go to apoplectic on me hear me out. Full disclosure here: I’m not a fan of either of those guys and readers of this blog know I like “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” so you might be thinking, “So Robinson is just another Al Gore supporting, Volvo driving (I drive a 2000 Dodge Stratus actually) latte sipping (prefer Paul DeLima French Roast) tree hugging (okay, guilty there) liberal so OF COURSE he wouldn’t wear it. Wrong. I did and am wearing it now. And okay, I did vote for Gore in 2000.

But here’s what went through my head this morning. “If I wear this shirt, what label will people attach to me? Conservative? Neocon? Republican? News junky? I guess we’ve always labeled people: rich, smart, handsome etc. It seems like you have to be either or these days. The middle has washed away. I’m not sure why that is as I’m not a sociologist but I think I’d have to say that the business I work in has had something to do with that. Between talk radio and the 24 news cycle on cable news channels, we’ve created a big echo chamber for whatever your political persuasion happens to be.

So what’s the point? I don’t know other than I decided I didn’t really care what label someone cared to assign to me. People who know me know what I’m like and what I believe and that’s all I really care about. People can think what they want. And for the record, I’m not a fan of Hannity or O’Reilly mostly because they just always seem so angry to me. They’re never happy unless they’re bashing something or someone.

As for the shirt? Nice swag, I’ll wear it again.