Looking for Answers
It’s been a strange week. I’ve been reading some articles by conservatives that have puzzled me and I ran into someone who’s conservative and intelligent and yet I was surprised at how far behind this person was when it came to knowing about and understanding the many blunders of the Bush administration. I begin to wonder what my responsibilities are.
I have no problem with speaking the truth as far as I am able to understand it. For example, the Bush administration was slow giving our soldiers the body armor they needed and the armor they needed for their vehicles. Many people across the political spectrum spoke up, myself included, and finally some improvements were made. This is what makes a democracy work and too many people forget it; when people start getting hold of the facts and they realize the government is slow to react to those facts, and it’s important to react to those facts, it’s in everybody’s interest to speak up. And it’s in everybody’s interest to listen. Because there’s so much to speak up about these days.
Right now, it’s conservatives that are having trouble listening but many on the left have the same problem. People get ideas fixed in their minds, both on the right and left, and they have trouble letting go of those ideas. And trouble letting in new material. For years, we’ve heard people complain: not in my backyard! But people are also saying these days: my head doesn’t have room for your facts, thank you!
Okay, so this week I’m thinking that maybe I need to let go of some of my own ideas, just a little, for now. But I’m not sure what ideas to let go of. I don’t think I hammer conservatives over the head with my observations but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I assume conservatives are stronger than they are, that they can take it, that they can hear the facts and come to their own judgments.
Or maybe conservatives are just tired and need a brief respite.
Everybody, conservatives, moderates and liberals, want to have meaning in their lives. So we look for meaning and forget the other guy is doing the same. You can find meaning in anything, includng the poem below by Oscar Wilde:
Tristitle
O well for him who lives at ease
With garnered gold in wide domain,
Nor heeds the splashing of the rain,
The crashing down of forest trees.
O well for him who ne'er hath known
The travail of the hungry years,
A father grey with grief and tears,
A mother weeping all alone.
But well for him whose foot hath trod
The weary road of toil and strife,
Yet from the sorrows of his life
Builds ladders to be nearer God.
—Oscar Wilde
I have no problem with speaking the truth as far as I am able to understand it. For example, the Bush administration was slow giving our soldiers the body armor they needed and the armor they needed for their vehicles. Many people across the political spectrum spoke up, myself included, and finally some improvements were made. This is what makes a democracy work and too many people forget it; when people start getting hold of the facts and they realize the government is slow to react to those facts, and it’s important to react to those facts, it’s in everybody’s interest to speak up. And it’s in everybody’s interest to listen. Because there’s so much to speak up about these days.
Right now, it’s conservatives that are having trouble listening but many on the left have the same problem. People get ideas fixed in their minds, both on the right and left, and they have trouble letting go of those ideas. And trouble letting in new material. For years, we’ve heard people complain: not in my backyard! But people are also saying these days: my head doesn’t have room for your facts, thank you!
Okay, so this week I’m thinking that maybe I need to let go of some of my own ideas, just a little, for now. But I’m not sure what ideas to let go of. I don’t think I hammer conservatives over the head with my observations but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I assume conservatives are stronger than they are, that they can take it, that they can hear the facts and come to their own judgments.
Or maybe conservatives are just tired and need a brief respite.
Everybody, conservatives, moderates and liberals, want to have meaning in their lives. So we look for meaning and forget the other guy is doing the same. You can find meaning in anything, includng the poem below by Oscar Wilde:
Tristitle
O well for him who lives at ease
With garnered gold in wide domain,
Nor heeds the splashing of the rain,
The crashing down of forest trees.
O well for him who ne'er hath known
The travail of the hungry years,
A father grey with grief and tears,
A mother weeping all alone.
But well for him whose foot hath trod
The weary road of toil and strife,
Yet from the sorrows of his life
Builds ladders to be nearer God.
—Oscar Wilde
posted by Poechewe at 12:36 PM
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