in response to: http://www.livejournal.com/users/cheerfulchaotic/260005.html?thread=723365#t723365
[reposted for stupid date of post reasons: http://www.livejournal.com/users/cheerfulchaotic/260932.html
if you want to comment, do so there]
I’m not proposing we compromise on our values. I’m saying that the truth doesn’t advertise itself. It simply exists. As any good scientist knows, discovering and understanding the truth is rarely easy, and explaining it is often even harder. Insulting the population of most states is terrible marketing. And whether or not we mean it as a joke doesn’t mean that people aren’t listening and seeing deeper meaning in what we casually toss off. If we want people to listen to us, we have to construct a message that appeals to everyone and put it out there. This is important.
“Hatred is not a family value” is good, but “Loving _all_ our children is a _real_ family value,” is better.
The truth is, we probably care more about the well being of most Bush’s voters than Bush does. And that’s a truth that isn’t being marketed. A truth, I might add, that is a much more important message than a probable urban legend.
The thing that ultimately pulled me back from considering Canada as an option is that I may be able to help change the tenor of the country enough to keep one more fundamentalist’s painfully depressed, angst ridden, teen homo child from slitting his or her wrists in alabama or minnesota, or california. But it’s also worth considering that Bush bas been hurting America in a big way, he probably won’t be slowing down, and we have a responsibility to help stop the hurting, to the extent we can. Failing because we can’t be bothered to reach out to people of differing, even hostile, viewpoints and beliefs is a pretty damning failure, and not one I’m willing to accept.