Initiated with words; finished with fists. A fight in grade school was always a spectacle. Some were sporadic and occurred in a flash of hot-tempered emotions, while others were the climax that followed a week's worth of dramatic rising actions. Not every fight had a winner and not every fight had a cause, but every fight seemed to draw one image: a circle. 

 

Every conflict that took place between lockers and class periods was met with an audience. The rise in intense action between two parties caused inaction amongst the bystanders. While two or more students used their hands to battle, the rest used theirs to form an enclosure. Now in the digital age hands are used to live-tweet the play-by-play or capture the event on video. Some eyes watched in horror while others feasted upon the visual drama. None, however, would break the circle. 

 

The current election cycle is very similar. We've become so engulfed in the drama and slander of the potential candidates that we lose sight of what they are fighting for. We choose to form a ring around the candidates. We watch. We tweet. We gossip to our neighbor. But we don't move. As the fight drags out, the circle grows in circumference. 

 

Who knows when the circle will stop growing? It grows faster than a weed during the wet season. I'm afraid that we in the formation don't realize the culture we have become. My biggest fear is that the circle's collapse will only begin after the collapse of our own government that we allowed to be run by a disputant.