towermonkey wrote: Yannow archer, we all see the world through our own lenses. Those lenses are crafted by our experiences - mostly the bad experiences. Those are the ones that have the greatest impact on our lives because we are never prepared to deal with them. You roll with the punches just as anybody else does, but nobody else can see through your lenses. At least we know you're real. No need for a Mea Culpa.
yeah there is TM.....I know better than to let someone else's opinion of me get under my skin like that, it won't happen again. This isn't a playground, were supposed to be adults......it's time I started acting like one. If I do, maybe others will follow suit. For quite some time I have been uncomfortable with the tone of many of the threads here. We don't discuss issues, we hurl opinions and insults and sound bytes at each other like it's a snowball fight. The media has nothing on us for exaggerating the issues and blowing most of them way out of proportion.......whatever I have contributed to that tone, I hope to be able to stop. I won't back down (I aint that sorry) but I won't play the I hate you-you hate me game anymore.
For once I actually agree with you archer. I think the 'tone' of the first responses to a post usually gets that hateful snowball rolling. I've tried to be respectful to those who are respectful to me but I often lose a little self control with certain people who seem to only respond with broad brush negative generalizations.
In my ideal dream forum, members would respond to a post with a reasoned argument to counter or expand on the actual topic instead of immediately saying something like "You_______ are all idiots because you believe blah blah blah." To me that is about as ignorant as it gets (and I may be one who has done this).
I realize there are some OPs that appear to be hateful from the beginning and really don't even deserve a response. I just think that when a thread is started, the first person to add nothing but an ignorant insult or broad brush negative generalization should be called out for it. No need to remove the post or retaliate with another insult...just call that person out and move on.
I think over time we'll see who is actually willing to discuss the topic and present facts, good sources, and reasoned opinion.
For the record, I think the most considerate posters on both PC and here are Science Chic on the left and Printsmith on the right. I don't recall ever seeing them bash anyone even when provoked. I also have an opinion on the biggest instigators of hate on both sides but I see no reason to foul this thread with their names....we all know who they are.
I'll do my part to end the bullsh*t, even if there's just a few of us. Good post archer.
CriticalBill wrote: This isn't a war and liberals are not my enemy. I find it a huge waste of energy to discuss politics with insults and accusations instead of just making a case and backing it up. If anyone needs to be disarmed, it's people who only come here to perpetuate hate.
I spent all of last year fighting cancer and came close to death when my lungs got filled with blood clots. I'm trying to remind myself how short life is and how idiotic it is to be angry at people on a forum I may never meet in person. I come here because I like talking politics, not because I like to fight....I don't have much fight left in me now anyway.
I believe we were fighting the same cancer (I think I got that impression from a post of yours way back on another board) I hope you are doing well now, no matter how much support, friends, family, medical support, faith you have, it is still a war you wage primarily on your own. I surely understand that some days the petty fights on a message board seem so pointless when viewed in the light of the daily fight for life.....then there are those days that what I really want is to get down and dirty in a good knock-em-down-drag-em-out fight here.....just to prove I'm still alive. I'm going to have to resist those impulses...... It's better to re-direct the anger to something more useful other than trying and send a bunch of anonymous posters scrambling behind their computer screens.
CriticalBill wrote: This isn't a war and liberals are not my enemy. I find it a huge waste of energy to discuss politics with insults and accusations instead of just making a case and backing it up. If anyone needs to be disarmed, it's people who only come here to perpetuate hate.
I spent all of last year fighting cancer and came close to death when my lungs got filled with blood clots. I'm trying to remind myself how short life is and how idiotic it is to be angry at people on a forum I may never meet in person. I come here because I like talking politics, not because I like to fight....I don't have much fight left in me now anyway.
Bill, when you looked like this
do you think it would be fair to say that your parents and grandparents may have got pissed if they saw someone doing something they knew was going to make the rest of your life a struggle? There are higher callings than serving ones own interests. Sometimes it isn't just about you. Although if you are from the baby boomer generation y'all tend to think it is all about you. The "greatest generation" gave us the selfish generation
Not exactly sure what your point is BB. If you've read my posts, you know where I stand on the issues...we probably agree on most everything when it comes to politics. I also don't plan to get all squishy and hand holding with the left just to 'get along'. I'm just getting tired of the childish name calling that does nothing to further ones point, it just ends up getting me more pissed off.
If you really think about it, we are all just wasting time here anyway. I've yet to see a single convert to one side or the other on a political forum and you can be certain you won't change anyone's minds by name calling. I'm just here because I can't discuss politics with my liberal dad or friends because it's just not worth the drama that come with it.
The left is angry because they are now being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
Your post is proof positive of the opinion I have always held of you archer. People of good character are people I am always honored to have the opportunity to meet, even if it is only in a virtual way. Whether or not we could agree on what time of day it is on any topic political, I would be happy to have you living next door to me for I have known from the first that you are a person who would make the finest of neighbors. There has never been the slightest doubt of that in my mind, and your post only confirms what I have always known to be true, that your character is unquestionable in all instances.
I have always tried to remember this quote from Thomas Jefferson in my dealings with those with whom I disagree:
It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Richard M. Johnson, 1808
If Adams and Jefferson could become treasured friends for life despite their political differences, then the same is possible for all of us here today as well. Know that regardless of our political differences, as a person you are held in high esteem by me archer. I remain convinced that you are a blessing in every life that you touch, even when you are having a bad day, including my own. May your troubles be eased by the presence of the Creator's peace in your heart as you travel down life's most difficult roads. May you always feel the presence of His love for you, even on your darkest of days, and know with certainty that you never are traveling alone.
You are good people archer. Always have been, and always will be. Never, not for a single instant, did I ever think otherwise.
archer wrote: I feel I need to do a really big.....I'm sorry
Earlier today, and actually a few days ago too.....I, and other posters here, got involved in what turned out to be a pretty ugly 285Bound family feud.
In an attempt...perhaps misguided attempt.....to explain to one poster how the use of a throw away line like "you have no life" can actually be so close to the truth as to be hurtful, I let the whole situation get way out of hand.
I have tried to always keep the person separate from the opinion, always deal with the post....not the poster. it seems that is nearly impossible here, but I will continue to make that my goal, it's all about the ideas, opinions, issues, not about the person.
I do apologise for my part in hijacking more than one thread here trying to make myself understood, and failing miserably in the process. It was never my intent to use my health situation as an excuse, as a plea for sympathy, or even a reason for losing my cool, I simply wanted to illustrate that you can hit pretty close to home with a personal attack and maybe we shouldn't be personally attacking posters....just posts.
And that is all I have to say.
WHO WAS IT ARCHER!?
Let me do your dirty work for you my dear...Who was it? I'll be on him like white on rice
This has been a horrible day.....the kind that comes along every now and then and just knocks you flat, emotionally and physically. I have been holding it together today by a thread, trying to be involved in those activities that keep me sane...you know......a little message board time, a little support group time......a little time spent researching current events...a lot of time snuggling with my husband and my puppy, they seem to know when I need their support.....
Then along comes your post, and I cried (I'm not embarrassed to say that).....that is about the most generous and out-reaching post I have ever read, by anybody. Thank you, I am proud to be called a friend by you......
If I am lucky enough to be allowed to return to Colorado for the summer.....I really hope I get to meet some of the people I have crossed paths with here. You all have no idea how important it is to have a virtual town like this when you cannot physically be there.
Thanks again PS.....you sure know how to make a lady feel good about herself!
archer wrote: No dirty work required VL....but I appreciate the offer.....never know when I might have to call on you
You have been a good friend to me since you first trolled into an old message board we were on. My how times have changed.
Well of course, I like good smart people.....I remember you scolding me on Lionsbrook for not evacuating our beach front condo on Oahu during last febuary's Tsunami there..The little town we were in completely emptied, ours was the only car left in our buildings parking lot, Obama was on the TV telling us to seek higher ground, helicoptors were coming right up to the balcony telling us "TO LEAVE IMEADIATLY", my wife was crying and insisting that we go, our kids were on the phone (when it worked, all circuits busy) telling us to go.. but I wasn't budging...
But when you scolded me I really thought about it for a second..
