random snatches of babbling are driving me nuts.
dialogue heard in passing this morning: “i don’t agree with gay marriage, but it doesn’t matter if i voted for george bush because congress won’t pass the amendment anyway.” i’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist of it.
this from someone who married someone who is not an american citizen.
and now andrew sullivan tells me that i’m supposed to open a dialogue with all these intolerant people. how, he says, can we ever hope to make progress if we don’t listen to their point of view? we, he says, should consider what they have to say.
my response?
how long do i have to beat my head against the wall? why do i have to be responsible for pulling everyone’s head out of the sand? is it my fault that they choose to make no move to overcome their ignorance?
i’m not going to dialogue with people who are pushing to change texas schoolbooks to specifically say marriage is between a man and a woman. they need to forcefully be told to shut up because they are wrong.
i’m not going to dialogue with people who want to put stickers in science textbooks that say that evolution is unproven. they need to forcefully be told to shut up because they are wrong.
i’m not going to dialogue with people who call themselves conservatives and stand aside while people who call themselves conservative spend this country into oblivion. they need to forcefully be told to shut up because they are wrong.
i’m not going to dialogue with people who everyday avail themselves of rights and benefits won through the blood and sweat of liberals and the american labor movement, and then bemoan “big liberal government”. they need to forcefully be told to shut up because they are wrong.
i’m not going to dialogue with someone who doesn’t intuitively get that their non-american spouse got rights through marriage (which i’m glad they have) that i as a lifelong taxpaying american can never get, rights i may never get partly due to that someone’s bigotry. they need to forcefully be told to shut up because they are wrong.
and they can forcefully tell me to shut up because i am wrong. and that is their right.
and i will tell them that i’m tired of explaining myself like i have for so many years to so many people, and i will tell them that the discussion is over and to change the subject.
let them wonder why i am so hardheaded and upset and completely unwilling to discuss certain subjects. maybe that will motivate them to consider another point of view. my years of patience certainly don”t seem to have done much good.
i’m through giving one inch to the will of bigots. they should have no room to believe that their thoughts and behaviors are acceptable in any way. because they are not.
how will they ever see the error of their ways? how will they learn, you ask?
i don’t know. maybe from me sometime in the future. but i’ve been at this “education” business for a long time.
and i need a break.