Reply #15: Okay Jeem, here goes

[Tsiyu]

And Nance, I love you and hope you don't mind.

I promised my dear new friend 'Jeem' that I would write about him on my "Manifesto" ( as he called it) tonight, so I am adding this to my journal.

But, this is crazy, Nance, because it is just like the conversation he and I had this evening and I simply have to respond while keeping my promise.

(Jeem, you will have to hit "Discuss" to read Nance's excellent new rant that pretty much describes a lot of our conversation tonight and why I looked at you so funny when you said certain things.)

To your credit, Jeem, you didn't shove Jesus down my throat, I quoted the Bible liberally while you left religion out of the discussion.

And also, to be fair, you believe a woman has a right to choose... up to a point, if I heard you correctly.

But Jeem, even though you said a lot of things that Nance and I agree are pretty damned stupid, I want you to know I really don't think you are stupid. I think you are an amazing person with a lot of talent who just doesn't know enough about what's going on to make the claims you make.

I think you want to do the right thing. I believe that you really do love your country and you are fed up with lazy people. But remember when you said - after I said the economy was tanking - that "You liberals always see the glass as half empty?"

I could say the same about you in the way you view other human beings.

You see the worst while I see the best. You see all the lazy people wanting a government handout while I work alongside and live alongside people working their asses off to put food on the table.

You see all the Arab and Persian people you believe want to turn the world Muslim; I see all the Arab and Persian people who merely want to raise their families and go to school and live their lives free of violence and war and American greed. Or Saudi greed. Or any rampant greed.

You see all of your taxes sent directly to one welfare recipient, enabling a lazy person to continue in their laziness while I see my taxes divided up between all sorts of people and projects, benefiting us all.

If i could say one thing that might help you see the light it would be:

Turn off the TV and the talk radio and circulate among more people and discuss more and think for yourself. And get a damned Internet connection!

You asked me to provide you with proof about PNAC and other issues ("liberal judges" etc.) and that I will do.

And that alone tells me that you really do want to know the truth, or at least that you want the chance to examine the evidence. That's not stupid.



And Nance, I understand your frustration and why you wrote what you wrote. The discussion between Jeem and I got very heated. However, merely chalking his sentiments and opinions up to "stupidity" - as satisfying as that might feel at the time - is simplistic and wouldn't have led him to say "Show me your proof."

And he wasn't just asking for evidence so he could readily discount it (Although he dismissed the internet as being the domain of the "unnamed source" which was kind of funny the way he put it. Still, I believe he will enjoy it immensely and learn much once he's hooked up - hopefully soon.) I truly believe, from the look in his eyes, that he does want to know why I feel the way I do; he does want proof of my claims and he will consider them - even if only briefly.

I could say our argument went nowhere, but the only argument that goes nowhere is the one that never happens. We will both be thinking about the things the other person said, even if only to puzzle over why another adult can think so differently from another.

If we say "it's not worth it" every time we are confronted with the 25%ers we miss the opportunity to be authentic, to say what we really mean. We can't blame our own complacence on someone else's "stupidity."

I actually enjoy a good argument with a Koolaid drinker. It helps me see what is working from the media standpoint and it helps the thirsty one get used to liberal ideas: spoken out loud.

So maybe you can't exactly win an argument with Rightie tighties, but you can damned sure still give them food for thought.

And they might even want to continue the discussion later...


(This from a person who used to avoid being in the same room with those I considered "stupid" before.)

Keep on arguing, is all I'm saying. No matter how pointless it may seem. You never know when somebody might wake up because of something you say...

:hi: