Amy, and Aims, actually, and anyone else (Sean recently comes to mind) here who fits:
Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to be honest and sincere and thoughtful and mindful and patient on Facebook and everywhere else you might share your opinion on Things that Matter.
I mean it. You might think that it's a waste of time or typing and that it's just a frustrating argument, but remember: lots and lots of your friends are reading your intelligent and heartfelt posts. The way you describe the situation, using facts and clear-headedness, and above all, never reducing to name-calling, sets an *example*.
It takes courage and commmittment to be the voice of reason. And I mean it about setting an example--an incredibly important one. You might not get lots of comments from other people, but you can be sure they're reading them. And they're touched by them. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but at some point, the posts like the ones you made about the mosque and the ones about Prop 8 that Sean recently made - those will stick in peoples' minds ands maybe eventually reach their hearts.
And it's a seed. It's a seed that is important to plant - that seed of understanding, of not belittling your debate foe, of not reducing everything to a soundbite. It's important and I sincerely thank you for taking the time to plant it.
java - I certainly hope you are including yourself on that list. You take the time to pose questions to people about where they are coming from even if you know the answer is going to be something you fundamentally disagree with. And that? Is also very important.
I love us.
I'm just going to let Aims be my spokesmodel all over the Interwebs.
java, you are the awesomest.
On a related note, memo to Ross Douthat [link] : Welcoming the stranger is not just a political ideal, it is also a cultural value. A pretty important one in the America I grew up in, actually. The America that knew that those immigration restrictions you speak of so highly killed many of my relatives.
Wow, did I not want to come home to find out that the a/c has decided to quit working. Uncool. In more ways than one.
That Douthat article makes me want to quote at him one of the few Christian Bible verses I know: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for therby some have entertained Angels unaware."
I can't decide if I'm still glad I'm not on Facebook. I'm sorry that I'm missing some buffista eloquence.
If only he weren't so often a douchehat himself.
Java is hoew I measure how strident I am being. If she thinks I am over the line, I likely am.
In "we can disagree an still joke" news: this dude who made my middle school life hell and is still kind of a dick (though I don't know if he realizes who I am because I do not use my maiden name) commented on a mutual friend's posting of the NY neighborhood photos with something about freedom of religion being all fine and good, but the community should get rid of the bad ones. To which I replied "So, all of them?" And he, to his credit, replied. "Yep. Except for Scientology, the one true religion." To which I quoted The Manchurian Candidate.
