This is an attempt to create a space where issues can be discussed free of hate, fear mongering, labeling, and empty rhetoric. The idea is a shocking one ... that political issues can be discussed logically and respectfully by people who don't agree. It isn't easy, but it is worth a try.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Monday Musings: Focus on Romance
In
honor of Valentine’s Day, Walgreens wants me to ”focus on romance,” and get in
right away to take advantage of 50% or more off on condoms and a “doctor
developed male enhancement” called “Libido-Max.” If Republicans admitted they engaged in sex
that wasn’t intended to result in conception, I would have concluded that Walgreens
was run by Republicans. The fixation
with a result awkwardly and obviously divorced from the process of achieving it,
as well as reality in general, just seems so early twenty-first century
Republican. Forget conversation,
connection, or even dinner … just get naked and give me some “romance!” Forget compromise and collaboration or
anything remotely like a conversation about the issues, just give me a smaller
government and lower taxes, and do it now!
And I don’t care if I even know what romance or small government is!! Call me crazy, but not only do I like to know
something about my goal I actually enjoy the process of getting there. I think that’s what Walgreens and the
closeted Republicans that run it have forgotten … often the journey is as
important than the destination … and damn it, you can’t get there without
it.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
W-etiquette Wednesday: The NRA's List
The NRA has a list of people
and organizations that are “anti-gun.”
It includes such radical leftist organizations as the American Academy
of Pediatrics, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Mennonite Central
Committee-Washington Office, the National Association of Secondary School Principals,
the YWCA, A & M Records, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Sara Lee Corporation,
St. Louis University, and the Christian Science Monitor. Also on the list are opponents of the Constitution
and America like C. Everett Koop, Vinny Testaverde, and Christie Brinkley. In the eyes of the NRA these are radicals,
presumably because that gun control legislation is important and should be
enforced. Either you see the right to
have a gun as an absolute right, never to be meaningfully regulated, or you are
the enemy. This is an unfortunate
position, and one that has no grounding in the Constitution, the rulings of the
Supreme Court, or common sense. This you’re
with us or you’re against us mentality works in Westerns, but it doesn’t work
in real life in the year 2013. We need
to come together and work to make school shootings less common, gun deaths in
our cities a rarity, and suicides using firearms uncommon. We can only do that if we see ourselves as
working together to solve these problems, as opposed to lining up for a
shootout at the O.K. Corral. We can only
do this if we recognize that gun control is one part of the solutions we are
looking for. We can only do this if we
stop listing our enemies, and start listing our suggestions and the premises
which support our conclusions.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Tuneful Tuesday: I'm not crazy and I don't think you are either
“Well, you've gotta be crazy, baby to want a guy like me. Yeah, you've gotta be out of your mind … crazy.” Crazy - Icehouse
The
protagonist in the Icehouse song thinks that this woman must be crazy to like
him. If he were in her shoes, it sounds
like he would not make the same choice. Of
course, he probably doesn’t really think she’s crazy. He just doesn’t understand her decision
making process and is exaggerating for effect.
Which, I suppose, is what a person is doing when they say another person
must be crazy to think the earth was created in six days, to really believe
homosexuals are a threat to America, to vote for Obama, to try to take away
people’s guns because of one school shooting, to try to blame the financial
crisis on unions, etc. etc. The problem
is that this sort of exaggeration has an effect, and it is pretty negative. The effect is that the person being called
crazy is less likely to listen to, agree with, work with, and even compromise with
the person calling them crazy. This
crazy person isn’t really crazy. They
have reasons for believing what they believe in. They may not be good reasons. They may not be well thought out
reasons. But, they are still reasons. Their positions are not the result of actual psychosis. Rather than calling them crazy, which is the
easy way out, us ‘sane’ folks should try to figure out why the ‘crazy’ people
think the way they do and try to explain to them why we don’t think that
way. “You gotta think differently baby”
doesn’t capture the confusion of love nor does it make for catchy song lyrics,
but it works better in politics.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Monday Musings: Mirror Mirror on the Wall
Here is my new test for political arguments. Go into the bathroom, turn the light on, and
shut the door. Find the mirror and look into it. Distill the argument down to a sentence and say
it out loud. If you turn red, laugh out
loud, or feel ashamed … never say, write, or think it ever again. Here are some arguments, distilled to their
essential elements, which do not pass the mirror laugh test. “I was created by God on one of six days,
along with grass, water, trees, and a lot of evidence of evolutionary change
that God planted there to throw us off.”
“If two men get married, it would mean the death of Western culture as
we know it.” “Requiring people to prove
that they are not criminals, insane, or criminally insane before they buy a gun
puts us all at risk of a gun tax and/or having all our guns taken away.” “The free market solves everything, and I
yearn for the days of child labor, sweat shop fires, and rat feces in my food.” “I oppose abortion because it is killing and
I support war and the death penalty, but not just because they are killing …
see the difference?” “When people succeed,
they do it on their own and you are a socialist if you think that roads, telephone
service, the internet, mail service, employees, partners, police protection, teachers,
or parents made any difference at all.” Now,
try this one: “Everyone deserves an equal shot at success, something that can
only be done if we come together under the leadership we ourselves elect to
provide everyone with meaningful education.”
How about this: “Government can be inefficient, but it isn’t evil and if
I take a few minutes I can think of quite a few benefits I derive from the
existence of a strong central government which I would not be interested in
giving up.” Or this: “the goal of the Constitution
was to strengthen the federal government.”
See the difference. See how well
it works? So, why don’t you use it? Before you try out your arguments on other
people, try them, out on yourself. The
rest of us would really appreciate it.
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