Monday, January 24, 2011

Where did civility go?

Given my crazy work schedule, I tape quite a bit of news from both sides of the fence - from FOX news to shows on MSNBC with CNN being somewhat in the middle with most of their commentary and coverage. While there is quite a bit of hypocrisy on all sides, my point here is to not critique in detail about what they are saying...it's more about how they are saying it. How is it that everyone is so extremely mad all of the time?

Too many commentators use negative tactics such as fear and screams to motivate their supporters, and take to throwing out rancorous insults against their opponents. How did we get to this point of using third-grade bully behaviors to make our points?

Last week, one of the reporters for Examiner.com wrote an article after the McCarthy bill was introduced, and while I don't agree with his opinion, he wrote it in a manner that was constructive without lowing himself to ludicrous name calling. What really irked me was those who posted comments to the article that makes me question what these people are thinking.

One in particular - a Wendy Weinbaum posted this comment, with the misspelling and grammatical errors as she posted: "As a Jewes in the US, I feel that Eric Fuller, the whining Tucson survivor, survivor, is just another impotent metrosexual pussy."

The gentleman she's talking about, a military veteran, was indeed arrested the week before last for making threats against a Tea Party leader during a televised town hall meeting. I'm not condoning his actions, but to call this man names after he was shot in the knee and back during the Tucson massacre is just plain wrong. Sounds like the guy is suffering from PTSD and it seems rather shallow to kick a man while he's down.

It's time we grow up, get past the grade school name-calling bully stage, and use civil language to express our views. There is so much anger going around these days, and while it's human nature to result to profane language when other words escape us when we get angry, we're also adults who should possess the maturity to take a breath and think about what we say before we utter words that hurt rather than get our points across.

We all love our great country and aren't happy with the way things have been going for about the last decade. Rather than ripping each other apart and getting no where for solutions to our real problems (unemployment, job creation, health care costs, just to name a few), it's about time we express our views with respect to the opposing sides and make a real conscious effort to find solutions that will appease as many people as possible. We won't please 100% of the people 100% of the time, but all of this name-calling crap is not getting us any closer to solving the big issues of the day.

All of the gun control reaction to the Tucson shooting is just that - a reaction to a tragic event where some people think that additional regulations will prevent such an event from happening again. I see where Congresswoman McCarthy is coming from, and while I agree with her on the high capacity magazine bill, I certainly don't agree with others calling for the repeal on owning handguns in urban areas or other significantly restrictive actions. We have the right to bear arms - the Second Amendment gives us that right - and while the First Amendment gives us the right to assemble and to speech, maybe we need to consider what speech we use before we say it. This doesn't mean we need to censor ourselves, but it would be nice to bring back a level of civility that will likely be more productive to finding solutions we all seek.

7 comments:

  1. Stop. Just stop.

    Everyone is laughing at you. Everyone knows you are a paid propaganda mouthpiece telling everyone to be reasonable, they won't take your deer rifle, everything is okay.

    If the big nasty peanut gallery worries you, your best bet is to close this blog and walk away from the public eye.

    Jah blessings.

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  2. Hey look the anti-gun shill pretends to still be pro-gun.

    You know who bought that? NOBODY! : ]

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  3. I'm all in favor of bringing more women into shooting. My wife is a shooter and we strongly support getting females on board.

    I'm also all in favor of making support of the 2A a bipartisan issue.

    But I'm also in support of some degree of honesty. The only thing I know about your background is that you were on the advisory board of AHSA. Despite its name, AHSA did squat for hunters and shooters. It also aligned itself with gun control groups. It could at best be described as "ineffective" and at worst be described as "a false flag astroturf campaign." I understand that both sides of this issue have used "false flag" tactics (the infamous Mary McFate, for example), but I think you'd have a lot more credibility -- and probably fewer hostile comments on your blog -- if you acknowledged and explained that history right up front.

    If your real purpose is to bring bipartisan support to empower women and encourage them to get involved in the shooting sports, then clearing the air would probably be helpful. Otherwise all the accusations of "AstroTurfed shill" will just linger.

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  4. So right after the AZ shootings, you post what, one blog entry? Then suddenly you are invited on a news program as some sort of "voice of gunowners" where you claim to support the 2A yet still want restrictions on standard capacity magazines. Pretty good timing, huh?

    In your first article, you state that you wish to provide a voice for more females to be empowered by firearms ownership, and yet the handful of posts you've made since have done nothing to help either females or gunowners. You've only talked about your support for the McCarthy magazine ban.

    Do you honestly think that anyone isn't going to see through this? I'm guessing that someone in the gun ban lobby needed a pretty face with a blog that sounded cool to give a "reasonable gun owner" approach and so they asked you. You created an account on the fly, and became an overnight expert.

    I'd also bet good money that this "blog" will disappear with McCarthy's bill once it is defeated.

    Oh, and by the way, my mother lives by herself. She sufferes from lupus and fibromyalgia. She lives in a town where police protection is NOT a 24 hr a day occurance. She owns a Ruger SR9, which comes STANDARD with a 17 rd. magazine. Your efforts to try to ban my mother's means of protection are neither helpful for women nor conducive to our constitutionaly recognized rights.

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  5. A book about professional wrestling was titled "Contraversy Creates Cash", and as my wife tells me "I am not shouting, I am emphasizing!" Same on politics, media and EVIL folks - they are nasty just because it gets attention, in media it sells, check FOX. CBS tried to scare you into everything, didn't work.

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  6. Good news! Your blog was mentioned in the NRA's AFF magazine this month. You must be proud to know that you are such an anti-gun fake that even the NRA saw fit to expose you.

    But, I guess since you haven't blogged in almost two months, it means you've served your purpose and your acting services are no longer needed.

    Enjoy shooting that gun of your's that fits "five rounds in the chamber." And tell Paul Helmke the next time he sends one of his puppets out he really ought to find one that knows a little more about guns.

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  7. Fifth column reporting at it's finest. Civility is reserved for those engaging in honest dialogue.

    You area known quantity now, sweetie.

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