tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post1070035687258806514..comments2024-03-27T12:58:00.592-07:00Comments on Snowbrush: A Too Ready AcceptanceSnowbrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-30374170122516099892019-07-21T07:01:39.692-07:002019-07-21T07:01:39.692-07:00I appreciate your honesty now most of all. Many o...I appreciate your honesty now most of all. Many of us, who now see more clearly the moral imbalances we witnessed while doing/saying nothing, would still not have the courage to admit our darker days. Thank you for sharing your process/growth towards a more compassionate and responsible way of behaving in this world. I hope to follow your example.Myrna R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15088915165678737118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-59930083249607131512019-07-20T10:07:28.259-07:002019-07-20T10:07:28.259-07:00"I consider the treatment my son has received..."I consider the treatment my son has received from "friends" since he became vegan and I am not at all surprised at my own weakness.<br /><br />From infancy on, people are like chickens who will gather together and peck to death a chicken that is different. It is often assumed that children are exempt from prejudice, but tests prove that they are not.<br /><br />"I never suffered from violence from other girls (helps to be big and strong)"<br /><br />Perhaps you just mean to say that this made you more imposing because, while things might have changed, I never once knew of girls fighting physically.<br /><br />"I worked mainly with men and seemed to get along with them much easier."<br /><br />For most of my life, I deified women because of their bodies, plus I considered them the gentler, kinder, wiser, more self-reflective sex. I was also aware of the extent to which males objectified and mistreated girls and women. So, I was surprised to hear from some girls and women about how viciously backbiting, exclusionary, and mean-spirited females can be, and how they themselves preferred the company of males... Years ago, my transmission started giving me trouble, and the shop told me I needed it replaced, explaining that the last person who worked on it had screwed something up. Well, the last person who worked on it had been a good friend with whom I had since had a falling out. However, that didn't stop me from calling him to ask his opinion. He suggested that he look at my transmission, which he did, and upon which he made a minor adjustment that completely and lastingly fixed the problem. When I told a woman friend about the incident, she said that no two women would have acted like he and I had. I've always wondered if she was right.<br /><br />"I avoid Trump supporters though I know I am among them occasionally, I am not friends with them."<br /><br />I never felt that I couldn't be friends with a Bush supporter or a Reagan supporter, but i share your feeling about Trump supporters simply because he's so blatantly outside the bounds of respect, inclusiveness, and decency that it makes me doubt the intelligence and goodwill of his supporters. Why Republicans don't consider Trump's extreme divisiveness a problem, I can't imagine, but I can't tell that they do. It's as if they reflect his attitude of: If you're not 100% onboard with me, then screw you.<br /><br />"Our lifestyles are part genetic, part personal choice, and who are we to judge?"<br /><br />Since the bulk of this post was about homosexuals, I'm wondering if you think that homosexuality is partly a choice. I know I could no more be a homosexual than I could be a cat, which reminds me of New Yorker cartoon in which two dogs are watching a cat walk by, and one dog asks the other, "Is it heredity or lifestyle?"<br /><br />"But of course 'hurting anyone else' is subject to wide interpretation ... and so we continue to argue about it."<br /><br />Yes, people will argue that prostitution doesn't harm others, but then they either have exceedingly low standards, or they haven't lived in a neighborhood frequently by hookers, and the same is true in my neighborhood with homeless campers. However, when it comes to homosexuals, where's the harm? I instead think of them as like Jews in that they are NOTSnowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-3750764832297263222019-07-20T09:24:03.304-07:002019-07-20T09:24:03.304-07:00My natural inclination is to live and let live, as...My natural inclination is to live and let live, as long as people aren't hurting anyone else. Our lifestyles are part genetic, part personal choice, and who are we to judge? But of course "hurting anyone else" is subject to wide interpretation ... and so we continue to argue about it.Tomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08611148987085476580noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-60595634890252835882019-07-19T12:38:45.923-07:002019-07-19T12:38:45.923-07:00An interesting thoughtful post per usual. I never ...An interesting thoughtful post per usual. I never suffered from violence from other girls (helps to be big and strong) but I certainly was a victim of many mean girl incidences. And mean girls are very plentiful! And some of them grow up to be mean women. I worked mainly with men and seemed to get along with them much easier.<br /><br />Am I prejudiced? I've been known to say thoughtless things about Asian drivers and can't embrace those that cling to misogynistic religions or anyone who uses 'religion' as an excuse to hate or bully. I avoid Trump supporters though I know I am among them occasionally, I am not friends with them. My family is very multicultural I have an African American grandchild Jewish children Arab grandchildren, Polish children, Asian nieces so all this hate rhetoric that Trump is encouraging send her back) is personally stressful.<br /><br />As for gay people, it is genetic, not a choice. Yep it could be a genetic dead end though my gay stepniece will carry a baby soon. And know lots of gay parents who raise kids that are occasionally theirs genetically. Do I stand up against bullies? Not really. One of my co-workers one day was up in arms because on 'diversity' day, a gay boy was going to speak and my coworker thought it was a recruitment talk. A scientist!! I did try to disabuse him of such nonsense. How can you possibly recruit someone? He claims to know you can from personal experience. I think he had a brother that was 'recruited' Perish the thought a gay gene was involved.Sue in Italia/In the Land Of Cancerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11146373251097877539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-9891264786043898812019-07-17T16:31:00.872-07:002019-07-17T16:31:00.872-07:00I'm another who tends to shy away from the soc...I'm another who tends to shy away from the social exclusion that comes with standing up for a cause. Though I am getting better at it with age.<br />I look at myself and think I can be weak but at the same time, I consider the treatment my son has received from "friends" since he became vegan and I am not at all surprised at my own weakness.<br />People can be brutal .....and of course this is how evil is perpetuatedkyliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08964475783207438103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-44483241649142130262019-07-16T17:09:14.536-07:002019-07-16T17:09:14.536-07:00"I don't think I ever believed that virtu..."I don't think I ever believed that virtue was for chumps. Cowardice was my excuse. And not wanting to put myself any more firmly in the other/not as good as us category."<br /><br />I got a bit lost in the third sentence, but I think you meant that you feared social exclusion. In any event, in my case the cowardice meant not wanting to be rejected for being what I grew up hearing people refer to as "a goody two-shoes." You might have noticed that on Westerns the bad guys always think of the good guys as sissies, and that the ordinary citizens who are caught in the middle are invariably cowards. Cynicism, for boys sets in when they observe that the good kids often come out worse in real life, and so it was that, for me, while striking back was a virtue, it never meant striking back against evil, but instead slugging some kid who insulted or bullied me, and even that didn't come out of courage, but out of the knowledge that worse things would happen if I didn't strike back. In other matters, I couldn't wait to surrender to cowardice. For instance, when my high school was integrated in 1966, I shuddered to witness the abuse that was heaped on the three black students (in a school of hundreds), but I knew very well that it would have meant social death--and probably a lot worse--if I spoke out.<br /><br />I wonder whether males and females face different challenges when it comes to speaking out because while girls don't tend to get beat up by other girls, it dawned on me at some point in life that, aside from serious injury, getting beat up might be preferable to the kind of emotional abuse that many girls can inflict.<br /><br />One thing that surprises me no end anymore is how casually people steal music. Peggy and I have both had friends who copied CDs for us, yet neither of us told these people, "Thanks but no thanks, thief." Our own cowardice aside, what is the difference between copying a CD versus walking into a music store and stealing it outright? It seems to me that the biggest difference is cowardice, which is why, back in the days when I used to shoplift, I congratulated myself on my bravery.<br /><br />Linda, I watched the video and when Peggy (my wife) entered the room, I went back through it and showed her the flagpole miracle and the religious knowledge survey--speaking of which, did you know that non-believers know more about religion than do believers (https://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/)? I'm an atheist, a longtime member of the "Freedom from Religion Foundation," and, before that, of American Atheists (for which I served as non-resident editor when Robin O'Hair was editor). I also occasionally attend the Episcopal Church (where I volunteer as a sexton and am fully and warmly welcomed by the priest and others who know of my atheism), plus I own a collection of Episcopal prayer books that go back so long ago (roughly 200 years) that some of them include prayers to be said in debtors' prison and at executions (these prayers exhort prisoners to admit full responsibility for their problems and to accept the appropriateness of their punishments).<br /><br />I never would have envisioned rainbow flags in Laramie anymore than I could envision them in my hometown in Mississippi. Maybe the difference is the prevalent evangelical view (in Mississippi) according to which people are LBGT by choice, and that, because of their sins, our entire nation is in danger of God's wrath (you might recall Pat Robertson saying that homosexuality was the reason that New Orleans was hit by a hurricane).Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-67077294231707601162019-07-16T15:05:59.645-07:002019-07-16T15:05:59.645-07:00https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr0O9aHW38&fe...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr0O9aHW38&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3Hh02WxXSpcwOJgG7f_BMrEA5zm4DIwddQ8WyYok8qRjeGgBXvGHcjI6k<br /><br />A talk that may interest you. Also I just returned from a trip back home to Laramie where Mathew was murdered, you will be pleased to know that every rainbow flag lined street welcomes not only gay folks but hispanics, Asians, and blonds- I did not see one single MAGA hat nor tRUMP sign! Linda Suehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03070050388987072100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-68589509839893870662019-07-16T15:05:11.863-07:002019-07-16T15:05:11.863-07:00I read this first a couple of hours ago, and went ...I read this first a couple of hours ago, and went away and thought about it before commenting.<br />I wonder how many of us are guilty of similar things?<br />I know that I have not always stood up for victims of injustice as often or as loudly as I now do.<br />I don't think I ever believed that virtue was for chumps. Cowardice was my excuse. And not wanting to put myself any more firmly in the other/not as good as us category.<br />Elephant's Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06650565833097914052noreply@blogger.com