Comments on: Being Polite in the Age of Terror

By: redhawk

redhawk — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:26:07 +0000

ACLU will Never agree to stop Terrorists UNTIL their Wash Dc HQ is rendered to ashes by the next round of Flying Objects….. and then some ACLU Freak from Vermont or from Leaky Leahy Cellar will object to that idea!!!

By: Norm

Norm — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:56:02 +0000

Re:”I once heard a cop say that if everyone had been brought up to be polite, he’d be out of a job. And it makes sense, doesn’t it? Politeness is a sign of civility and common decency. It’s impolite to lie, or to steal someone else’s property, it is very impolite to murder and rape.”
Sorry I got hung up on this verbiage for so long…maybe I’m up too early. But shouldn’t the word “polite” be “impolite” in the first sentence?
As for the rest of the article, “Yes, I’m on the same page.” This post 911 syndrome has distanced myself from so-called friends and has extended to family. I have siblings that are hard-core Democrats regardless of outward ideology;never willing to compromise.
Like the old expression, “California or bust!” it’s “Democrats or nothing!” and this disturbs me. It also echos the phrase, “Why? Because I said so.” Until this strict adherence to party politics melts away we will continue to drift apart.

ps The Muslim problem is greater than any of the news media have depicted. It’s like an out of site child blowing up a baloon…you don’t know it’s there until the baloon pops.

By: Roger W. Gardner

Roger W. Gardner — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:16:51 +0000

Thank you SakredKow for your comments. I too still believe in those positive concepts. I also believe that they hold within them certain inherent risks if used injudiciously. We simply do not automatically owe people tolerance and understanding, it must be earned. To be tolerant of a ruthless and intolerant movement is commiting a serious, and potentially dangerous, blunder. And, unfortunately, these types of blunders are occuring all around us every day.

As for my sounding as though I lost a lot that fateful day, I feel this way — If any American doesn’t feel as though they lost a lot on that day, as though their particular lives weren’t irrevocably altered on that day, then they’re just not paying attention.

By: sakredkow

sakredkow — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:10:58 +0000

I think there are still some of us who believe earnestly and sincerely in those words and concepts – that life of yours before 9/11 that you describe so well, and that sounds so good. And some of us believe those things still even though we DON’T believe that America is to blame or at fault, and a lot of us are’t necessarily on the Obama bandwagon. We believe those good things, politeness, decency, tolerance, generosity of spirit, because they make this absurd, dangerous life worth living, even if they also seem to put us at risk.
You sound like you lost a lot from 9/11. Or maybe it was just that post – I haven’t been a regular reader. Peace and good will – without illusions.