[Grovenet] A comment

[Walt Wentz]

>Are you there hoping for a confrontation?

No, I'm there hoping to reassure people that they can still use their 
constitutional right to express what they are thinking, rather than 
hunkering down in scared silence or meekly parroting the official 
lines(S).
A calm, serious and respectful discussion, of course, would be a real bonus.
Walt

>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>>  From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com]On
>>  Behalf Of Walt Wentz
>>  Sent: Saturday, May 03, 2008 12:35 PM
>>  To: Forest Grove local interests list
>>  Subject: Re: [Grovenet] A comment
>>
>>
>>  >.three or four young men in
>>  >it...the passenger side front seat guy yelled:  "If it ain't white, it
>>  >ain't right!!"  And the car kept moving along.
>>  >
>>  >So...this is where we are today, in 2008?
>>  >
>>  >I felt sorry for the young man.  How could this be?
>>
>>  Mike:
>>  In the weekly war vigil, watching the traffic for a couple of hours,
>>  I get plenty of opportunities to view the full spectrum of political
>>  reactions... and politics is seldom a result of thoughtful analysis,
>>  but rather of personal angst. Young males full of teen hormones
>>  instinctively run in packs, and feel compelled to "impress" each
>>  other with rebellious behavior. As likely as not, this young turkey's
>>  parents denounce racism, so he feels compelled to flaunt it.
>>  Of passersby who give negative reactions to the peace vigil, I'd say
>>  males outnumber females by at least 10 to one, and young males give
>>  the vast majority of those negative reactions. Usually these are
>>  limited to the classic gesture of the middle finger (probably the
>>  limit of their debating skills) or an unintelligible bellow out a
>>  rolled-down window as their pickup speeds on by.
>>  I can reassure you, though, that we only get about three negative
>>  reactions an evening, as opposed to a hundred positive ones. And most
>>  negative reactions are delivered at high speed--this avoiding any
>>  need to defend their opinions in person--but never yet have we gotten
>>  a real  discussion, even from those few pedestrian "patriots" who
>>  have accosted us face to face. A middle-aged gent in a black leather
>>  jacket that I met Thursday evening was entirely typical. He simply
>>  reeled off all the "official" rationales for the war at high speed,
>>  hardly giving me a chance to get a word in edgewise, and skipping
>>  hastily on to the next  routine every time I did speak up.
>>  Eventually he stomped off in a huff, snarling, "You just don't have
>>  any REASONS!"
>>  "You never listened to them," I replied mildly, but by then he was
>>  half a block away and accelerating rapidly.
>>  I've noticed that as the war news gets uglier and more discouraging,
>>  the level of negativity also goes up. It's a matter of "cognitive
>>  dissonance"-- people don't want to confront the real world's
>>  contradictions to their beliefs, and so they respond to them with
>>  anger or rejection.
>>  So, don't be discouraged, Mike. The young turk you encountered was
>>  merely being human. If he were cornered and forced to justify his
>>  outburst, he could probably only mumble some ancient platitudes
>>  picked up from the gutter. If he has any native intelligence,
>>  eventually he will begin to actually look at the world, and to think
>>  his own thoughts. But, if not, there will always be a home for him
>>  among the earnest and unquestioning audience of the Republican Noise
>>  Machine..
>>  Walt Wentz
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