It is somewhat of an odd feeling for me to care about other people’s opinion. I know how that sounds trust me. I also know I have made a pledge to be honest here, so I have to be on this subject as well. Let me explain further. It is not that I don’t feel others have a right to their own opinions, I most certainly do. It is just that I have a strong sense of what I do and don’t believe. I guess all of this is a long winded way of expressing my surprise about actually having it bother me when people take issue with topics of discussion here on the page. It has only been roughly six months that Sam and I (later on adding Trish) have been doing this. We are most assuredly still amateurs when it comes to all this. Personally, the thing I struggle with is balancing my desire to understand how people within this small community think on any number of subjects, versus what may or may not be construed as being the correct content for what this page is and the things we hope to accomplish. The impulse to just tell people to get over it because it’s my page and leave it at that is strong, believe me. There goes the pain in the ass associated with honesty again. The problem with that is it skews too closely to what those I disagree with on the other side of the political spectrum use as justification for all manner of bad behavior. To give you all full disclosure, this occupied much of my internal thinking last night, even while watching a movie that I want to have a discussion on in a different thread (The Purge, not great film making but an interesting conversation piece). This is a new reality for a person not accustomed to these kinds of doubts. I guess in some ways I owe it to this community and its members for making me become more circumspect in regards to what I say and how I converse with others. Having said that I did come to a conclusion late last night that I am comfortable with and want to use for the page and personally. What that boils down to for me is a belief that while some subjects might be uncomfortable for certain people, nothing should be off the table for discussion as a means of understanding others or points of view that you may not have a grasp of. Certainly if it devolves into pettiness or just outright meanness or lies, the administrators and community members should and will put a stop to it. No one deserves to be unjustly ganged up on and attacked. Accept Ann Coulter; destroy that guy if you want. In all seriousness though, a big part of this for me is attempting to understand what others think and why? If we can’t as liberals/progressives talk openly about what we believe and why we believe it, what hope is there for maintaining the kind of coalition of voters and ideas that can take back Congress and give us the kind of change we aspire to? I assure you, any subjects I have or will bring up are not ever meant to elicit an unleashing of hatred or vitriol onto our community members who I don’t share the beliefs or opinions of, they are an attempt for me to achieve a level of understanding for that which I don’t feel I have an adequate conception of. I don’t know if this will appease those who I occasionally ruffle the feathers of but at the very least I hope it shows you that I do think seriously about things before I put them out there. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your weekend. Matt
Posted on: Sun, 09 Jun 2013 10:41:49 +0000
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