who am I?

I don’t hold anything sacred. Seriously. Nothing immediately comes to mind that I’d get offended by. Everyone has opinions and even if those opinions differ greatly from what I believe, I won’t think less of you or get angry at you because you disagree with my position.

I can have a heated discussion/argument about religion, politics, race, culture, war, homelessness, baseball, football, art, or literature with you without becoming angry even if we fail to find common ground on that particular topic. I mean, we’re all more than just a collection of opinions and no one opinion should cause you to dislike someone.

My blog is probably one of the few places you can voice your honest opinion, no matter how misguided, and I won’t delete your comments. Ever. You can call me names, write in all caps, question my heritage, heck, club baby seals, and I won’t care. I won’t even close comments to avoid an argument or decline someone the opportunity to challenge my beliefs. I think that open discourse is important even if it makes you uncomfortable. I know others don’t feel the same way and have seen fellow bloggers close their comments when things get out of hand or people start resorting to their base instincts. I don’t fault them that, but wouldn’t ever resort to those tactics in order to keep the illusion of peace. Even if, by some miracle, you manage to make me angry, I find it too much fun to find ways of getting under your skin to close comments.

I’ve often held unpopular opinions, but I won’t be offended if you don’t see things the same way I do. For instance, I think terrorism is cowardly, but understand the philosophy behind it. Say what you will about islamic extremists, but they at least are willing to do what their enemy is not in order to achieve their goals. I would imagine that if the US resorted to the same tactics as the terrorists, few such organizations would risk attacking US interests.

Another example of my unpopular views include politics. George W. Bush is about as inept a leader as this country has ever had. He says the wrong things, at the wrong time, to the wrong people, but he isn’t the anti-christ. Laying all this country’s problems at his feet is about the dumbest thing I think normally intelligent people can do. It gives him way more power than he deserves and much more than he actually has. When I see people attack his policies, all I can do is shake my head in confusion. I know people will seek the path of least resistance, often shutting out reason, in search of the answers for difficult moral dilemmas, but blaming Bush for the terrorist attacks, the war in Iraq, the massive loss of life in the South in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is just plain simple-minded. Corky from life goes on could present better arguments against Bush’s policies than some of these people. I digress.

I just think censorship is a horrible thing. Since I see things as black and white, I believe that you should have as much right to promote your own views here, however misguided, to lend an air of democracy to this blog.