Compare and Contrast
July 21, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
My blood’s not boiling, but I’m quite depressed. This is what it’s come to. That this behavior is considered socially acceptable anywhere, for any reason, is just sad. The video is well done, but the content is shameful. It’s not shameful to have a reasoned position against the war, or against specifics in how the war is being fought. But the willful ignorance and the uncivil behavior is shameful. It’s legal and should remain so, of course, but it ought to be socially unacceptable in the same way that racism is socially unacceptable. I’m more of an Adams fan than a Jeffersonite, but this quote is spot on:
“I fear [political difference] is inseparable from the different constitutions of the human mind and that degree of freedom which permits unrestrained expression. Political dissention is doubtless a less evil than the lethargy of despotism, but still it is a great evil, and it would be as worthy the efforts of the patriot as of the philosopher, to exclude its influence, if possible, from social life. The good are rare enough at best. There is no reason to subdivide them by artificial lines. But whether we shall ever be able so far to perfect the principles of society, as that political opinions shall, in its intercourse, be as inoffensive as those of philosophy, mechanics, or any other, may be well doubted.” –Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Pinckney, 1797. ME 9:389
[Added: and it's not just a handful of freak protestors in CA. The ultimate in incivility.]
And now, to cleanse the palate, via Baldilocks, the news the “professional” media will not give you:
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