Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2003 10:57 pm
Hi Everyone,
Wow, this thread grew really fast. Too bad our European friend left the forum. He certainly contributed a thread that increased everyones interest in posting their views.
I waded through most of the stuff written and it seems to me that we are a very diverse group politically, religiously and also by temperament.
I am reminded of a passage in the New Testament, perhaps is in Paul's letter to the Phillipians where Paul talks about the virtue he practiced as a Pharisee and how he worked to perfect himself, and then one day he realized that he had failed to recognize that the sin of pride in his righteousness had blinded him and that he only thought he was perfect.
Many of us like to think we are broad minded and that we are tolerant of others and that we like to see all sides of an issue, but then someone comes along and this person is intolerant, rude, and narrow minded, and demands his own way.
What happens then is that we tend to forget all our tolerance and all our ability to see both sides of the issue and want to come down hard on that bigoted, ignorant person. The problem is that, all too often, we, in the process of attacking this threat, can become like them. It is easy to be tolerant of tolerant people, but very difficult to be tolerant of people that hate us without good reason.
But we owe to ourselves to not feed the demons in our own souls in a Crusade to fight evil, or what we perceive as evil.
What we need is perspective and what we need is a sense of humour to make it through life.
One of the things that I dislike about political correctness is that one can hardly express any opinion without offending someone.
Why not allow people to be who they are and accept them. We don't have to even like them, but allow them to be who they are and a part of our community.
Dale does a great service for whistlers by running this forum and the Chiff and Fipple. But really, folks, why should he have to apologize for sharing something that he experienced in Church? I am sure that the Jews, Muslims, and other religious people, including Athiests need not fear that they will catch anything by listening to his perspective. I have had very rich dialogs with a friend who is a very devout Muslim, and the local Rabbi in my town recently spoke to our Methodist Congregation. Does that mean that I don't have strongly held beliefs. Certainly not. But, the reason that the Rabbi was able to be invited to speak during Passover was that this Rabbi came and visited my pastor during serious illness and showed a real concern for him as a person. If we focus on our differences, we cheat ourselves out of a rich experience of getting to know extremely interesting people and learn about very interesting beliefs. But remember that those interesting beliefs are also beliefs that may be very strong and very passionate and may shake us up and even make us mad. But even those ideas are worth listening to, because they make us think and rethink what we hold to be true. To me, that is what it really means to be an American.
Remember, a lot of us got here because people where we came from didn't like us for some reason. But now that we band of outcasts and misfits have arrived on these happy shores, let us lift a glass and celebrate our differences and know that this is what makes us strong and interesting people to chat with on the forum.
And if Dale likes to try his hand at being a latter day Jonathan Swift or other satirist in his newsletter. then enjoy a chuckle on our President, he has big shoulders anc can take it, or if you don't like it, just hit the delete button. Compared to the other stuff I get on the email client, it is a joy to see it come up each month. And I enjoy, as a confirmed lurker, reading all of the interesting, crazy, funny, sad, disturbing things that people post on this site. We are a community and I wouldn't change a thing........... .... Errr, maybe a couple of things...... but I'll let that go
Wow, this thread grew really fast. Too bad our European friend left the forum. He certainly contributed a thread that increased everyones interest in posting their views.
I waded through most of the stuff written and it seems to me that we are a very diverse group politically, religiously and also by temperament.
I am reminded of a passage in the New Testament, perhaps is in Paul's letter to the Phillipians where Paul talks about the virtue he practiced as a Pharisee and how he worked to perfect himself, and then one day he realized that he had failed to recognize that the sin of pride in his righteousness had blinded him and that he only thought he was perfect.
Many of us like to think we are broad minded and that we are tolerant of others and that we like to see all sides of an issue, but then someone comes along and this person is intolerant, rude, and narrow minded, and demands his own way.
What happens then is that we tend to forget all our tolerance and all our ability to see both sides of the issue and want to come down hard on that bigoted, ignorant person. The problem is that, all too often, we, in the process of attacking this threat, can become like them. It is easy to be tolerant of tolerant people, but very difficult to be tolerant of people that hate us without good reason.
But we owe to ourselves to not feed the demons in our own souls in a Crusade to fight evil, or what we perceive as evil.
What we need is perspective and what we need is a sense of humour to make it through life.
One of the things that I dislike about political correctness is that one can hardly express any opinion without offending someone.
Why not allow people to be who they are and accept them. We don't have to even like them, but allow them to be who they are and a part of our community.
Dale does a great service for whistlers by running this forum and the Chiff and Fipple. But really, folks, why should he have to apologize for sharing something that he experienced in Church? I am sure that the Jews, Muslims, and other religious people, including Athiests need not fear that they will catch anything by listening to his perspective. I have had very rich dialogs with a friend who is a very devout Muslim, and the local Rabbi in my town recently spoke to our Methodist Congregation. Does that mean that I don't have strongly held beliefs. Certainly not. But, the reason that the Rabbi was able to be invited to speak during Passover was that this Rabbi came and visited my pastor during serious illness and showed a real concern for him as a person. If we focus on our differences, we cheat ourselves out of a rich experience of getting to know extremely interesting people and learn about very interesting beliefs. But remember that those interesting beliefs are also beliefs that may be very strong and very passionate and may shake us up and even make us mad. But even those ideas are worth listening to, because they make us think and rethink what we hold to be true. To me, that is what it really means to be an American.
Remember, a lot of us got here because people where we came from didn't like us for some reason. But now that we band of outcasts and misfits have arrived on these happy shores, let us lift a glass and celebrate our differences and know that this is what makes us strong and interesting people to chat with on the forum.
And if Dale likes to try his hand at being a latter day Jonathan Swift or other satirist in his newsletter. then enjoy a chuckle on our President, he has big shoulders anc can take it, or if you don't like it, just hit the delete button. Compared to the other stuff I get on the email client, it is a joy to see it come up each month. And I enjoy, as a confirmed lurker, reading all of the interesting, crazy, funny, sad, disturbing things that people post on this site. We are a community and I wouldn't change a thing........... .... Errr, maybe a couple of things...... but I'll let that go
