Letters to the Editor
Gatorgirl
Published Letters: 11
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What a wasted life....
[Read the article: Gloria Borger & the media's reverence for Karl Rove]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can't help wonder what meaningful purpose Gloria Borger feels her life serves when she makes a career out of repeating meaningless prattle. Is she, and others like her in the media, just empty shells who stand for nothing other than getting their faces on out television screens? She can't find any sort of mission in her work...such as serving the public by providing a high quality reporting and original insight. Such followers, them all...
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Onward Progressive Soldiers!!!
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a recovering fundamentalist reared in the insularity of a conservative Christian church and school, I have one stern piece of advice for secular humanist, religious liberals, and various other progressives - STOP MUSING AND START FIGHTING!
You can spend from now until eternity opining about the oddities of schools like Patrick Henry. But that will not stop them. Neither will a bad showing by Republicans in the next election; these fundies are in this for the long haul.
A belief in absolute truth - no matter how much mental gymnastics it requires - is energizing. It inspires boldness, discipline, and the willingness to fight one bruising fight after another.
Progressives are right to view the world in more relativistic terms. We are right to place a high value on tolerance. We are right to accept ambiguity. But we fail miserably when we allow cerebral musings to take the place of bold stands. We must find a balance between the intolerant, black and white worldview of the fundamentalists and the impotent view that since there are no absolutes, we can't be certain of anything, therefore we shouldn't fight too hard for anything or else we might risk being intolerant to someone.
Tolerance is and always will be one of the most important values. But it is not the ONLY value or even the MOST important. We should NOT be tolerant of those who would, if given a chance, turn our country into a theocracy. We should not be tolerant of those who would subordinate the female half of our country; we should not show tolerance towards those who distort our country's history and obscure the founders' secular intents for our country as a political unit.
So to sum up my thoughts, where are the counter movements to schools like Patrick Henry? Are their any? I'm not talking about schools where liberal professors ramble on and on, but rather progressive training grounds where young progressives are engaged in a disciplined curriculum where they are trained to offer alternatives to the false security the absolutist provide; where they are idealistic enough to believe they can change this land; where they are imbued with a mission for fighting for intellectual freedom, equality of the sexes, and all the modern values we take too much for granted. Only when we take our progressive values as seriously and as dear as the fundies take theirs, will we be able to preserve our culture and freedoms and stop the backslide into political and religious regressivism.
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Response to Anonymous
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"So, too, is acting all brave that you are holding the line against all them bad fundies and their bosom allies, Any Other Pople Who believe Or Don't Get Into The Faces Of People Who Believe.
Fucking bore."
Anonymous,
Your expressing the cynical, lazy attitude of a loser. No one is encouraging "acting all brave", as you put it. What I was suggesting is for progressives to begin to take their fight for values as seriously as do the fundies. Progressives should begin to organize, mobilize, strategize, educate, recruit and train leaders and voters. This is not "acting all brave", its engagement in the political process. I'm sorry to hear participatory democracy bores you!
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Learn to read, Anonymous
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Take a deep breath Anonymous, and then go back and re-read my quote...carefully.
"Tolerance is and always will be one of the most important values. But it is not the ONLY value or even the MOST important."
I did not say tolerance was THE most important value, I said it was ONE OF THE MOST important values, which means there can be others. Just as the important value of free speech is limited by public safety (you can't yell fire in a theater).
Also, my remark about "absolute truth" was an observation. It is a view I believe strongly because I base it on years of experience spent in fundamentalist schools and churches. I do not view it, however, as an absolute truth. The "absolute truths" of fundies are beliefs they are unwilling to consider might be wrong. In the unlikely event I find evidence to refute my view, I will have no problem changing my mind.
Anonymous - "And progressive liberals claim to be so smart."
Awwww....and some of us even claim to be moral and nice people, too. Doesn't that just make you sick!!!!!
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Confused
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]OK, OK...All of you "Anonymouses" are confusing me. sorry if I responded to the wrong one. I think one of you I probably agree with..Mr. fucking bore, that is...making playground taunts at PHC student is futile.
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Mental Loop
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"All the people who go on and on about how we can't know truth...truth does exist and things to have meaning, even if we're sometimes imperfect in our grasp of them."
Anonymous,
You are in such a mental loop you must be feeling dizzy. By admitting we are sometimes "imperfect in our grasp" of the truth, you are admitting there is no absolute truth. How can we know absolute truth unless we also grasp it perfectly.
Also, just because one dosen't believe in absolutes, doesn't mean one has to be rudderless, either. There are many things I believe very strongly...strongly enough to act on them. The difference is if I am presented with evidence contrary to my beliefs, I'm willing to change my mind. Fundamentalists hold beliefs as absolute and refuse to consider evidence to the contrary. Often these absolutes are "unfalsifiables" like virgin births, God wants us to be a xtian nation, etc.
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Thanks
[Read the article: Jesus is my dorm advisor]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks, David, for articulately describing the different degrees of "knowing" to Anon.