I have been pondering a lot lately about how it seems more and more the case these days that people become so entrenched in their opinions, that our society seems to be losing the ability to have any kind of meaningful dialogue. And I'm not talking about any particular ideology or persuasion, just a general observation.
Just as I was preparing to post my thoughts on this, my friend Tai beat me to the punch, in her blog post from March 24, here:
Tai's blog
There's a lot to be said for having some civility and respect. It is, in fact, possible to disagree agreeably. I think it's a lesson all of us would benefit from trying to apply. This line of thinking reminded me of an article that I read back in October and which I think aptly discusses the situation:
A Great Article, Especially if You Are LDS
I think that the Republic would be stronger with a little more tolerance and understanding for all points of view, especially those we may not agree with.
And now I'll step down from the soapbox.
Gary, Rebecca, & Family: Subtitle redacted.
7 comments:
I read my local newspaper on the internet, and it saddens me to see the narrow-minded people who lurk on the forums waiting to blast every other commentator for their imperfect attempt to state their opinion. :(
Yeah, that is a good example. Pretty much any news site commentary section immediately devolves into senseless insulting. Those people are lame. Oh, wait....
:-)
First, Gary, I gotta give you mad props for the Aretha Franklin reference. Awesome!
Second, I'm again humbled that you linked my blog to yours. In rereading my post, I realized there's so much more I could have written.
I very much enjoyed the article. My favorite quote was:
"Some people mistakenly think responses such as silence, meekness, forgiveness, and bearing humble testimony are passive or weak. But, to ‘love [our] enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]’ (Matthew 5:44) takes faith, strength, and, most of all, Christian courage."
It very much reminds me of the saying "he who says nothing has the most to say" (or however that goes). It strikes me that in this day and age, we are very consumed with our right to speak our mind and voice our opinion. And often, that results in a lack of listening. We are so concerned about me, me, me and I, I, I, that we disregard the collective we, and the good for all mankind.
And don't think that I missed the irony of the fact that we both blog, a true self-promotion of our own opinions;)
And then there's this...
http://www.captainsquid.com/go/duct_tape.jpg
Haha, that is great. Perhaps we should say silence is silver. I take comfort in knowing that at least we are right on this issue, whereas all those who disagree with us are buffoons. Nyuck nyuck nyuck.
Seriously though, I am reminded of one of King Arthur's lines in Camelot..."violence is not strength, and compassion is not weakness."
Instead of being so concerned about being right or being popular or what-have-you, it would be great if we all spent a little more time being concerned with being nice, whatever behavorial modification that might mean.
Holy Bananas! I must not have looked at your blog in a while. I had NO CLUE Rebecca was pregnant! CONGRATS. I'm so excited for you guys. So does that mean you guys will be making a Utah trip sometime this fall? You know if you ever do...you need to check in with us!
Well thank you. We are excited. A little bit of trepidation about having two, but you have to take the plunge sometime. Or stay with one kid, I guess.
We had some vague plans to travel to Utah for the Washington v. BYU game, but with the due date it doesn't look like we'll be out there anytime soon. Possibly for Thanksgiving, but we'll see.
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