There is a strong argument to be made for engagement rather than confrontation. Until we are willing to show at least a modicum of tolerance for the views of others, however regnant, all we are really doing is shouting at one another. However, I suspect that it is impossible to follow such a strategy when dealing with the supremely stupid, the woefully ignorant, the rancidly racist and the perniciously partisan, to name but four qualifiers.
Assign what category you will to Brandon Mosely, a writer for the Alabama Political Reporter and staunch supporter of Senate aspirant Roy Moore, whose apparent predilection for exploiting young girls is the source of the most recent ructions in the good ole U.S. of A.
UPDATE: The New York Daily News is reporting that consummate consumer Moore was banned from the Gadsden Mall in his hometown for his, er, shopping habits:
The former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice reportedly cruised the mall for dates, both AL.com and New Yorker reported Monday.
Blake Usry said Friday and Saturday nights was prime time for Moore to visit the shopping hub.
“Like the kids did,” Usry told the Alabama paper.
A police officer named J.D. Thomas told mall employees to be on the lookout for Moore because he was “banned from the mall,” Legat said.
“If you see Moore here, tell me. I’ll take care of him,” the cop reportedly told Legat.
Police officers who spoke with the New Yorker said Moore’s presence at the mall was a problem.
“The general knowledge at the time when I moved here was that this guy is a lawyer cruising the mall for high-school dates,” one of the officers said.
“I was told by a girl who worked at the mall that he’d been run off from there, from a number of stores,” another cop recalled.
One word - Alabama.
ReplyDeleteThat says it all, Mound.
DeleteAnd they'll still vote for him.
ReplyDeleteApparently, even the most depraved are preferable to an 'establishment' choice, Owen.
Delete.. as your attorney, I advise.. (just kidding)
ReplyDeletethe word engage has so many uh..
directions !
A promise to marry.. for one
& when battle tanks or troops meet in war
the process of a conversation
the action involved using a clutch..
moments of solitary contemplation
In combat, the raison d'etre is to engage..
Mound got into this a ways back..
& yes, there is valid reasoning to it
but just as it takes two to tango
or to have an arguement
it takes two to form an agreement
Not one.. versus intractable refusal
or unwillingness to abandon ignorance
The term 'talking to a stone wall'
comes to mind.. flat earth 'thinking' ..
If the next step is denying Sandy Hook..
or seeing conspiracy in Las Vegas
or the science of climate change
or extirpation of species
or how dilbit is discounted Brent Oil
stuck in Alberta .. lack of tidewater..
Precisely, Sal. Precisely. Lately I've concluded that because I have been around for a fair bit of time, the context that the years provide is making me increasingly impatient with the world's folly. Almost every time I hear a politician speak, or an idiot blather, their words are superimposed on my life's experiences and learning, the result being that almost all words seem hollow, contrived and grossly dishonest or disingenuous. I don't consider myself bitter because of this, only more realistic than many of my fellow humans. Consequently, it does not make for the limitless optimism that some would have us feel.
Delete