Stepping Off of Soapboxes

A friend of mine...an acquaintance, really...periodically publishes blog posts that I find provocative. They make me think and often I change the way I perceive an issue as a result of reading them. Sometimes, they simply make me realize that even his posts that have the occasional maudlin message can be powerful. Here are a few I recommend you read:

So, Just How Happy Are You?

This first piece is one of those that tug at one's heart strings, but carries an important message, especially for someone like me, who tends to be quite judgmental. I have empathy, sometimes deep empathy, for people, but too often I let that slide deep into my subconscious. What I let surface is acidic vitriol aimed at people who I treat not as real people, but as unthinking, unfeeling objects. Not a good thing. Jim's message has the proper target in me.



Gasoline is Too Cheap: A Contrarian's View

This message is based on a view to which I subscribe completely. Gas is too cheap. Despite the unreasonable profits taken by the oil companies, we consumers are getting away cheap, and we shouldn't. With all our talk of needing to minimize our own carbon footprint, most of us are very bad at it. Our behavior suggests that the only way to control our thirst for gasoline is to pay through the nose. I think we should. It seems we must be forced (many of us) to find alternative means of transportation or to plan our travels to conserve fuel. Look at me: yesterday, I went on a 150 mile aimless drive that was unnecessary, except to my psyche. I could have found better, less polluting ways to cope with my stress. Make me pay $7 per gallon for gas and I might begin to practice what I preach.



Outrageous Trump Speech: The Dangerous Precedent of Don Imus

This one may earn me the wrath of some readers, but so be it. I was right there with the other lemmings who considered Don Imus an evil bastard for stepping in it with his untoward comments about a woman's basketball team and some of its young African American women players. But, on reflection, we should all have simply done what Karger suggests...if we found it offensive, vote with our fingers. I personally never watched the guy and found his show to lack entertainment value and to be silly and useless. But I do believe strongly in allowing freedom of speech, even for geezers who make remarkably stupid statements. Let them boil in their own juices...but it's not my business nor my responsibility nor my right to do the cooking. I'm ashamed of myself for having failed to behave as a true progressive would...not to call for his head, not to demand his firing, but to simply condemn what he said and defend his right to say it.



Like many blogges of both liberal and conservative stripes, when talking politics (among other things) I tend to gravitate toward what I assume to be a liberal message, even though a serious assessment would reveal that the message is neither liberal nor conservative. I find that upsetting in myself and even more so in bloggers that have a true following.

It's my argument that, rather than aligning ourselves with a liberal perspective or a conservative perspective, we align ourelves with a thinking perspective, a perspective that requires us to rely on real logic, rather than the logic of political message-mongering.

And I believe in stepping off of soapboxes regularly.