Letter to the Big Bear Butt Blogger

23Aug10

(note: this started out as a comment on his post, but once it got past 500 words, decided to move it to my own page)

“You may be my friends, you may be people that have been visiting only once or have been here for years commenting frequently and becoming folks near and dear to my heart, like Dechion, Katt and Tesh, but you”re not my customers.”

I’m honored you mentioned me!

BBB, I agree with you wholeheartedly, this is YOUR place to write your ramblings about whatever you want to ramble on about. I enjoy 99.9999% of what I’ve read on here. Not to say I agree with it all, but I enjoy the dialog. That’s what America is about in my opinion, a man (or bear) can have and express his opinion, and people are free to agree, disagree, or ignore it as they see fit. If they feel passionately in the opposition they can present their case and then you have an exchange of ideas. When the exchange becomes entirely one way, and not voluntary then you have something not American. I hope our leaders (and the people who select them by scribling on the little peices of paper or touching the voting machine) can realize this and remember how the place is supposed to work.

I purposefully avoid political dialog on my site, as I recall something my Grandfather once told me. “There are three things you should never talk about with a stranger; Politics, Religion, and the weather.” It took me a long time before I understood his statement. But, over the years (I turn 32 this weekend BTW,) I’ve come to understand. This is different from standing up and taking sides for what you believe, this is about how to live well with others.

Take sides! Always take sides! You will sometimes be wrong — but the man who refuses to take sides must always be wrong.

—Robert A. Heinlein

When people discuss the weather, it’s to cover those uncomfortable gaps in a conversation. Both people know it, and all it ends up doing is exercising your jaw.

When people discuss religion, you are starting to tread on dangerous ground. I personally am a non-denominational Christian. There are tenets of the organized religions that I do not hold with and will not discuss here. What I will say, is that when it comes to religion regardless of which you subscribe to. Part of being a (insert religious group here) is that you believe it is THE right way. (singular, no other way will do.) By extension it means anyone not a member of said group is wrong and your job is to convince them of that. More wars have been fought and people killed in the name of God than over any other issue in the history of man.

Politics is almost as bad as religion, in some places it’s worse. Here in Texas there is a saying, “Football is a religion, religion is political, and politics is a game.” It must be so, there is no other explanation why teenagers would voluntarily commit to training sessions twice daily in the 100+ temperatures of the summertime Texas sun if it were not something they fervently (or is that feverishly) believe in. Back to politics tho, I will not state here my beliefs. In my office building, I can walk around and know instantly which way some of the people lean by the decorations of their cubicle. One lady has an Obama calendar, another guy has a NPR mug, another plays Rush on his radio whenever his boss is away. But, most people don’t display their colors openly to maintain decorum.

I’ll leave you with another quote.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. —Robert A. Heinlein

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