[Rhodes22-list] Soap Boxes

[brad haslett]

Bill,

Your conundrum is one I can certainly identify with. 
Every day I read the newspaper, several actually, I'm
exposed to a "slant" that I usually don't agree with
and am left with the dilemma of what to do.  Should I
quit watching the news and reading the NY Times or
just filter what I read and pick out the stuff I think
is true? (read "Coloring the News", William McGowan
and "Bias", Bernard Goldberg)  I choose to continue
reading and am not threatened by the daily bombardment
from others with a different way of looking at life. 
I spent four years in state supported university on my
own nickel listening to professors using their "bully
pulpit" to espouse their political views while on the
taxpayers payroll (my money again) and was left with
the same conundrum.  Do I raise the "bullshit" flag
and argue the other side or do I "co-operate and
graduate"?  I did all three!  My point is, all of us
are exposed to stuff we don't agree with every day,
some aren't aware of it but we are.  All of us have
the choice of remaining engaged or just quit listening
to what other's viewpoint may be.  Your schoolyard
bully analogy makes a point; "if you don't play like
me I picking up my bat, and ball, and glove, and going
home". If only life had a delete button like this
list.  Just use yours when you see my name and all
will be better.

Brad
--- Bill Berner <bberner at optonline.net> wrote:
> I've been prompted to write by Brad's last couple of
> posts, especially
> "Rumsfeld apologizes"
> 
> I started in to write a suggestion that the list
> charter be modified to ask
> that members be refrain from soap boxing their
> political positions.
> 
> Then I realized that it would be asking for the
> group to curtail Freedom of
> Speech.
> 
> So, I'm left with a conundrum. 
> 
> I am personally sick and tired of the inflammatory
> conservative claptrap
> that shows up here.  It's isn't always the substance
> that irks me so much,
> but the belligerance, sarcasm and school yard
> bullying quality of so many of
> the posts. I have rarely seen any acknowledgement
> that issues can be
> multifaceted and complicated. 
> 
> Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like all of the cannon
> fire comes from the
> starboard side, and I'm pretty tired of it.
> 
> Chances are that I'll have to quit the list to
> resolve the issue, not a
> choice I easily make.  There has been some good
> company here, and lot's of
> good information.  
> 
> Curious to see responses, then I'll shut up and make
> a decision.
> 
> 
> Bill Berner
> 191 South Broadway
> Hastings on Hudson, NY  10706
>  
> v 914 478 2896
> f 914 478 3856
> e BBerner at optonline.net
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
> [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On
> Behalf Of brad haslett
> Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 12:37 PM
> To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Rumsfeld Apologizes
> 
> May 26, 2003 
> Rumsfeld Apologizes for Hyping Saddam Threat 
> (2003-05-26) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald
> Rumsfeld apologized to Senate Democrats today for
> pre-war "hyping" of the threat posed by Saddam
> Hussein's regime. 
> 
> "I'm sorry Senators Biden, Rockefeller, Byrd,
> Roberts
> and others," said a contrite Mr. Rumsfeld. "We
> overestimated the threat posed by a lunatic
> dictator,
> who hated the U.S. and Israel, and who paid rewards
> to
> families of Palestinian terrorists. In an age when
> two
> of the world's tallest buildings can be brought down
> with tools used by the stockboy at K-Mart, we should
> have demanded more concrete evidence of exotic
> weapons
> of mass destruction. Saddam was helpless as a kitten
> up a tree."
> 
> Sen. Rockefeller, D-WV, said Congress must determine
> whether the administration "intentionally
> overestimated" Iraq's weapons program, or "just
> misread it. ... In either case it's a very bad
> outcome."
> 
> Mr. Rumsfeld agreed, "What an awful outcome. We
> deeply
> regret freeing the Iraqi people from a murderous
> gang
> of thugs masquerading in the United Nations as a
> representative republic. We're sorry that the Iraqi
> people have discovered thousands of graves of their
> Saddam-murdered relatives. It's none of our business
> if people want to live like that."
> 
> 
> 
> 
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