Calling on ariandne1880..we're waiting...

[Guest andrewd]

ariandne1880,

 

>When will people learn? You get more by trying to teach and educate than you do by irritating people.

 

I responded to your post on the topic of "Nationwide Protests This Weekend" and asked you to please share with us what your ideas are for better ways to teach and educate people rather than protests. That was four days ago and I am still waiting.

 

You have taken to calling me an ass wipe and have suggested others should get back on their meds. I sincerely hope you have better ideas than these, as name calling, at least by my measure, would tend to fall more in the category of irritating people than education.

 

I really would like to know what ways you are using to educate and teach people or what ideas you may have so we can all benefit from them.

 

I hope there is more to you than school yard name calling. It's not becoming of an adult.

 

4 days and counting....

[Guest zipperzone]

He's probably waiting for HIS COUSIN, ANDERSON COOPER, to bail him out on this one. :-)

[ariadne1880]

Here's a few ways to start (but, truth be told, if you don't know how to educate your friends and neighbors then the cause is hopeless).

 

1. Don't demonize your opponents

2. Realize that yours isn't the only valid opinion

3. Get out and meet people who don't think exactly like you -- they compose most of the world

4. Don't harass people into being fired for expressing their opinions

5. Don't protest and boycott it only further inflames people

 

Start there and get back to me.

[Guest andrewd]

ariandne1880,

 

Thank you for practicing civility in your response.

 

>(truth be told, if you don't know how to educate your friends and neighbors then the cause is hopeless).

 

To borrow from number 2 on your list: "Realize that yours isn't the only valid opinion". Everybody has an opinion; which is why when yours differs from others, it's good to share them as a means to hopefully find some common ground or at the very least to respectfully agree to disagree. I don't think having a different opinion on how best to educate people is hopeless, but rather an opportunity to see a point of view you may not have previously considered.

 

In re: to number 3 on your list: "Get out and meet people who don't think exactly like you -- they compose most of the world". How, where, & when do you go about meeting people? What do you discuss with them once you meet?

 

Thanks.

[ariadne1880]

My point is that the "gay community" -- as expressed in publications like Advocate and Out and sometimes on this forum -- has a very narrow-minded look at the world, often times. It demonizes anyone who disagree with it. Calls them names. Wishes them dead. Often, "we" are no better than our "opponents."

 

How can "we" we expect tolerance and understanding when we don't practice it ourselves?

 

That's what I'm saying.

 

When's the last time you sat down and had a conversation with someone who didn't hold a "far-left" opinion? When's the last time you sat down with a born again Christian? Or an Orthodox Jew?

 

I am not directing this specifically at you but at our community as a whole. I think we sometimes think that ours is the only valid opinion or that our community is only supposed to think one way. That scares me.

 

I sometimes see no difference between those who think there can and should be only one valid opinion about a subject in the gay community and those who think the same way in, say, the Mormon community.

 

I find it scary that gay people think it was OK to force someone to lose their job for expressing their rights on Prop 8 but would think that firing a gay man for expressing his rights were wrong.

 

Principle should be based on an absolute, not on what side of the issue you come down on.

 

It's a slippery slope.

[Guest andrewd]

>When's the last time you sat down and had a conversation with

>someone who didn't hold a "far-left" opinion? When's

>the last time you sat down with a born again Christian? Or an

>Orthodox Jew?

 

I actually have 3 sisters who are born again Christians, so I am challenged regularly to try and educate them. I also have a Mormon couple who are friends/next door neighbors of mine. They are on the side of marriage equality, but their family members are not, another opportunity to educate.

 

It's a slow road to educate and change the opinions of people with differing views about the need for all people to have the right to marry or in your opinion the right to civil unions.

 

Am I understanding you that you feel this is the best way to go about educating people? Or do you have a means for reaching out to those who are not in your immediate circle of influence? A means to reach more people than just a few?

[Guest TBinCHI]

>My point is that the "gay community" -- as

>expressed in publications like Advocate and Out and sometimes

>on this forum -- has a very narrow-minded look at the world,

>often times. It demonizes anyone who disagree with it. Calls

>them names. Wishes them dead. Often, "we" are no

>better than our "opponents."

>

 

 

While as far as I know you haven't wished me or anyone else on this forum dead, Ariadne, you are guilty as you charge here. How many names have you called people who disagree with you? You even go so far as to send private emails expressing the same hate-filled messages you express here. If you were to start practicing what you preach, I might be able to take your point of view seriously.

[Boomer]

>Here's a few ways to start (but, truth be told, if you don't

>know how to educate your friends and neighbors then the cause

>is hopeless).

>

>1. Don't demonize your opponents

>2. Realize that yours isn't the only valid opinion

>3. Get out and meet people who don't think exactly like you --

>they compose most of the world

>4. Don't harass people into being fired for expressing their

>opinions

>5. Don't protest and boycott it only further inflames people

>

>Start there and get back to me.

 

 

We're you looking at your reflection when you compiled your five point list?