the defense rests
now playing: schoolhouse rock, "figure eight"
after posting moby's link to the usa today article that you can find a few posts down, i mentioned that i didn't have any friends who were republicans, and - as fate would have it - i was wrong.
late in my high school years, i had a mad crush on melody - who was dating a bass player that i knew and tolerated because he was really the only game in town, where bass players were concerned, and also because he was dating melody. she and i became good friends...really good friends. the kind of friends who (it was the age, ya know....your teenagers will do it too) would be on the phone for hours and there'd be these long periods of silence sometimes where no one was necessarily saying anything - just keeping that connection open, ya know?
well, of course i had hoped that after the inevitable end of her relationship with our mutual effeminate friend that something might spark between us, but it never did...and at the time, i was dejected and bitter about it - but i'd already started formulating my plan for getting away from my hometown by then, anyway. so, i ran away and joined the navy, and she married a marine and went in the opposite direction, and that was that, essentially. she had sent me a letter while i was in iceland, and i can't remember if i answered it or not, but that was the end of it, until she managed to track me down on the internet not long ago. we re-established ties, and now we talk on a sporadic basis.
anyway, she found her way to my blog yesterday, and wrote me to tell me that she found my thoughts on iraq and bush "upsetting", but followed that with something of a disclaimer about her policy of avoidance where discussing politics is concerned. but i felt compelled to respond, nonetheless...not because i wanted to make my views her views, but because i wanted to explain why i felt the way i did. here's a piece of the letter:
"Hey, there....
the thing that i try to keep in mind when i'm discussing politics with people is that their political views are one part of the puzzle that makes up the whole person - i've had discussions with people who were unable to keep that in mind who get completely bent out of shape about whatever the subject might be at a given time. i'm pretty passionate about how i feel about certain things, but i haven't lost any friends over my views yet.
i can't say, though, that i'm not compelled to defend a couple of points....
first of all, as an ex military man myself, my views on the war in iraq have nothing to do with my respect for the military and the people in it. when you commit to a job like that, you commit to your role in the big picture, and you do your duty as you've sworn to do. i'm sure there are a huge number of soldiers in iraq who are proud to be there,to have an opportunity to serve their country.
i don't, however, think this is the most noble of opportunities to do so.
i think that by occupying iraq without just cause (which has yet to be proven in my mind), we lower ourselves to the same level of a lot of countries that i'm not comfortable keeping company with. it still to this day hasn't been proven that iraq had the WMD capability that our government told us they had, no signs of chem/biological/nuclear capabilities have been proven, and no link between saddam and al-qaeda has been proven. the president lied to the entire country during his state of the union address and said that they had proof that iraq had tried to buy weapons-grade materials from Niger, when they knew this to be false. they told us that we'd be welcomed as liberators, and they've been killing us off to the tune of almost 300 troops in the time since Dubya put on his flight suit and declared that major combat operations were over.
even if iraq had given us something resembling a just reason to kick their ass, at this point i just feel lied to more than anything."
"The only thing I would ask you is not to let yourself be convinced that because people like me feel the way they do, that it makes them anti-troops, unpatriotic, or unamerican. believe me, if i were any of those things, i wouldn't give a rats' ass what Dubya does. but because i do care about our country and our place in the world, i find that it upsets me greatly.
"To (say) that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but it's morally treasonable to the American public." --Theodore Roosevelt
Having said all this, i'm tempted to wonder if you're even still reading...do know, though, that this doesn't have to be a devisive thing between us unless you choose for it to be. I respect your right to your opinions and the things that i say are simply to elaborate on how i feel. neither one of us has to be "right" or "wrong" about this, as far as i'm concerned."
so this morning she wrote me back to tell me that although she knew what i was going to say before she even read my letter, that i'm not an asshole. (those are my words, not hers...i tend to encapsulate) so i think we're gonna agree to disagree and go back to talking about music or something a little more innocuous. it'll be interesting to see if we still interact the way we have, though. sometimes you can argue the virtues of the yankees vs. the red sox, or eminem vs. jah rule, or fleetwood mac vs. the eagles, or coke vs. pepsi...and you can laugh about it later and it doesn't color anyone's character or anything of that nature. i've found myself have a complete change of heart where people are concerned, though, after bigger things have emerged in the past. for instance, i might make friends with someone at work and enjoy their company until i hear them use the word "nigger" in a sentence, and then i find that i'm no longer compelled to want to be bothered with them anymore. sometimes your basic differences about things like that can push you away from someone completely...and i think that in a case of someone who hadn't already made an impression to the contrary, i'd probably just dismiss them as a crackpot. but i know her reasons for feeling the way she does, and they're perfectly valid from her standpoint. and i can respect that, without feeling like i've compromised my own beliefs.
besides, once you've known someone long enough to get a good look at all the good qualities they have, it does become easier to overlook differences, i think.
but i'll confess, it is something of a new stance for me.
see? you can teach an old hippie new tricks.
after posting moby's link to the usa today article that you can find a few posts down, i mentioned that i didn't have any friends who were republicans, and - as fate would have it - i was wrong.
late in my high school years, i had a mad crush on melody - who was dating a bass player that i knew and tolerated because he was really the only game in town, where bass players were concerned, and also because he was dating melody. she and i became good friends...really good friends. the kind of friends who (it was the age, ya know....your teenagers will do it too) would be on the phone for hours and there'd be these long periods of silence sometimes where no one was necessarily saying anything - just keeping that connection open, ya know?
well, of course i had hoped that after the inevitable end of her relationship with our mutual effeminate friend that something might spark between us, but it never did...and at the time, i was dejected and bitter about it - but i'd already started formulating my plan for getting away from my hometown by then, anyway. so, i ran away and joined the navy, and she married a marine and went in the opposite direction, and that was that, essentially. she had sent me a letter while i was in iceland, and i can't remember if i answered it or not, but that was the end of it, until she managed to track me down on the internet not long ago. we re-established ties, and now we talk on a sporadic basis.
anyway, she found her way to my blog yesterday, and wrote me to tell me that she found my thoughts on iraq and bush "upsetting", but followed that with something of a disclaimer about her policy of avoidance where discussing politics is concerned. but i felt compelled to respond, nonetheless...not because i wanted to make my views her views, but because i wanted to explain why i felt the way i did. here's a piece of the letter:
"Hey, there....
the thing that i try to keep in mind when i'm discussing politics with people is that their political views are one part of the puzzle that makes up the whole person - i've had discussions with people who were unable to keep that in mind who get completely bent out of shape about whatever the subject might be at a given time. i'm pretty passionate about how i feel about certain things, but i haven't lost any friends over my views yet.
i can't say, though, that i'm not compelled to defend a couple of points....
first of all, as an ex military man myself, my views on the war in iraq have nothing to do with my respect for the military and the people in it. when you commit to a job like that, you commit to your role in the big picture, and you do your duty as you've sworn to do. i'm sure there are a huge number of soldiers in iraq who are proud to be there,to have an opportunity to serve their country.
i don't, however, think this is the most noble of opportunities to do so.
i think that by occupying iraq without just cause (which has yet to be proven in my mind), we lower ourselves to the same level of a lot of countries that i'm not comfortable keeping company with. it still to this day hasn't been proven that iraq had the WMD capability that our government told us they had, no signs of chem/biological/nuclear capabilities have been proven, and no link between saddam and al-qaeda has been proven. the president lied to the entire country during his state of the union address and said that they had proof that iraq had tried to buy weapons-grade materials from Niger, when they knew this to be false. they told us that we'd be welcomed as liberators, and they've been killing us off to the tune of almost 300 troops in the time since Dubya put on his flight suit and declared that major combat operations were over.
even if iraq had given us something resembling a just reason to kick their ass, at this point i just feel lied to more than anything."
"The only thing I would ask you is not to let yourself be convinced that because people like me feel the way they do, that it makes them anti-troops, unpatriotic, or unamerican. believe me, if i were any of those things, i wouldn't give a rats' ass what Dubya does. but because i do care about our country and our place in the world, i find that it upsets me greatly.
"To (say) that there must be no criticism of the president or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but it's morally treasonable to the American public." --Theodore Roosevelt
Having said all this, i'm tempted to wonder if you're even still reading...do know, though, that this doesn't have to be a devisive thing between us unless you choose for it to be. I respect your right to your opinions and the things that i say are simply to elaborate on how i feel. neither one of us has to be "right" or "wrong" about this, as far as i'm concerned."
so this morning she wrote me back to tell me that although she knew what i was going to say before she even read my letter, that i'm not an asshole. (those are my words, not hers...i tend to encapsulate) so i think we're gonna agree to disagree and go back to talking about music or something a little more innocuous. it'll be interesting to see if we still interact the way we have, though. sometimes you can argue the virtues of the yankees vs. the red sox, or eminem vs. jah rule, or fleetwood mac vs. the eagles, or coke vs. pepsi...and you can laugh about it later and it doesn't color anyone's character or anything of that nature. i've found myself have a complete change of heart where people are concerned, though, after bigger things have emerged in the past. for instance, i might make friends with someone at work and enjoy their company until i hear them use the word "nigger" in a sentence, and then i find that i'm no longer compelled to want to be bothered with them anymore. sometimes your basic differences about things like that can push you away from someone completely...and i think that in a case of someone who hadn't already made an impression to the contrary, i'd probably just dismiss them as a crackpot. but i know her reasons for feeling the way she does, and they're perfectly valid from her standpoint. and i can respect that, without feeling like i've compromised my own beliefs.
besides, once you've known someone long enough to get a good look at all the good qualities they have, it does become easier to overlook differences, i think.
but i'll confess, it is something of a new stance for me.
see? you can teach an old hippie new tricks.
posted by tom at 08:29
<< Home