Still Another rant

Pennie Leading Worship ... and ............. Pennie on her way to Fellowship meal

















The rant I did the other day on Palin got me thinking about how we handle ideas we don’t like in this society.
Seldom do we confront ideas that are different from ours directly. That is we don’t say this is why we think this idea is wrong.
That would require thinking and some work to discover how solid our idea is.
Instead, since we know we are right and all good and right people should think like us we attack the person who made the statement.
We accuse them of being less than truthful. But we don’t ever bother to check where the real truth, if any, lies.
We call them crazy
We smear them in every way possible.
We make fun of them.
In the process we learn nothing.
But we feel good because we are right and we gave it to them.
We pat ourselves on the back because we dared to put them in their place.
But the ideas go unchallenged.
Destroying the messenger doesn’t change the message.
Somehow we need to learn to stop attacking and start arguing.
We need to make the ideas the focus not the giver of the ideas.
Yes Rush Limbaugh can be a jackass but some of what he says has the ring of truth.
Attack him and you don’t have to consider that truth.
Yes President Obama can exaggerate the problems trying to get legislation passed but much of what he says has the ring of truth.
Attack him as a socialist or communist and you don’t have to hear those truths.
But left and right the game is to attack and name call.
Too bad, because we have so much to learn from each other.