Conference rdvax::grateful

    This has been a tough one for me over the years. 'cause I have
    a few very strongly-held opionions...
    
    But I've learned(?) that however thoughtful and sincere and
    well-meaning etc... I may be, that I don't always have the right
    answer, the whole answer...  
    
    One thing that has helped me is that I've always been able to
    recognize that there is another side...  If there are n people,
    there are always n+1 versions of "truth."
    
    And I've known some really wonderful people that have held some
    political/social opionions diametrically opposed to my own...
    
    It's possible to imagine any group as "us," and all the rest as
    "them," but it's much more productive to imagine that we're
    all "us," and look for the win-win.   It's not always easy, and the
    hard ones are never easy, but I think it's important to recognize
    that we all struggle with the same moral and ethical questions...
    Our knowledge will always be incomplete, our understanding of
    any situation will be only partial... and so our opinions and solutions
    will always be incomplete...
    
    But we're all in it together...
    
    That's one of the aspects that I dislike aboput spectator sports...
    it's another us/them situation...  And people have fought and died
    for wearing the wrong team colors in the wrong neighborhood...
    
    /b

    
    
    
    It's the music stupid! 
    
    
    a grate man (IMO) once said "Politics is bullshit."
    another said "Those who want to lead are usually assholes."
    
    Me being a sidewalk socialist, I find that having a good, close, caring 
    friend that is a nazi-republican (U know who U are) helps. You (we) 
    share idologies and thoughts  on subjects, usually never coming to an 
    agreement on any thing, but often making each other reasses their opinion 
    and think a little harder about what we've said... *ALL* politicians are
    liars as far as I can tell, none of them or any govt will ever set you
    free...only the music can do that.
    
    I do, however believe in the "liberal" cause. and can in no way endorse
    the conservative, nazi leanings our country is taking these days.
    
    revolution for the hell of it 
    
    rfb_closet communist

fwiw rfb, i think i prefer sidewalk socialst
to closet communist...  :^)   probably beecause closets 
are such a bummer... :^)

anyway, i hear what you're saying Tom...  i have a few friends
who's views are very different from mine...  fortunately we've
managed to find ways to agree to disagree...  so i call him
a ditto-head nazi and he calls me a commie pinko fag... and
usually other people can figure out we're not serious and
get past it...  oddly enough, over the years, his views have 
become a lot more like mine, proving that he is indeed
a decent human being... :^) :^) :^)  ok, ok...  some of my
views have shifted in his direction too...  proving that my
parents did i good job indoctrinating me into the Right Wing
Irish Catholic Conservative Dogma (tm) :^)

as was said here before, it's important to know that none
of us has a lock on the truth...  i try to remember the words
of Anaise Ninn (i think that's spelled right) who said "we don't
see things as they are, we see things as WE are"...   who we are, 
how we view our world, and the attitudes we hold are shaped by our 
experiences...  for my part, i like to think that if i do my best to
live the way i talk, and try to make people's experiences with me 
to be a net positive, then gentle persuasion and perseverance 
with what i believe to be right CAN gradually bring about change...

hey, it worked with my parents... :^)  they're hipper now than they ever 
were...  :^)

				da ve

	i believe in the sacredness of the circle. to me, everything is a
	circle. i believe that you enter the world at a particular point
	on the wheel or circle of life.
	
	if you put all the people in the world in one big circle, an
	event which takes place in the middle of the circle would be
	viewed differently by each person, depending on their position on
	the circle; their perspective.  each person would see something
	different. for me, it helps to understand this. i may not
	understand another's viewpoint on something; be it politics or
	anything else. but, to understand that they have a different
	perspective helps me to accept their difference. i try to be
	comfortable with my place on the wheel, and let others be
	comfortable with theirs.  'course, i don't actually discuss
	politics.  ;-)  ;-)

The local newspaper I grew up with, The Wakefield Daily Item, always
ran the following quotation (attributed to Voltaire) over the letters
to the editor:

	I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to
	the death your right to say it.

This is a critical attitude to preserve in a democracy, which is also
known as the tyranny of the majority.  If we cannot converse and discuss
differences of opinion in a civil manner, then change and progress
become very difficult.  The current national struggles around abortion,
the death penalty, and the WOsD all reflect, to a certain amount, a
breakdown of discourse which results in two divided and angry elements
of society, each believing it is absolutely right, and that the other
side is morally bankrupt.  Or at least that's how the media plays it
up...in reality, most individuals hold positions somewhere in between
the two poles.

I guess my message is to keep talking...find the common ground...agree
to disagree...and remember some other words of Voltaire:

	I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short
	one: "O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous."  And God
	granted it.

Dan

    For those NH_heads, you may have already heard ... ARnie Arneson
    is going to run for US rep against Charlie Bass.  Not sure if she
    officially announced yet.