Our stories are our truth

[JoB]

Wake just chided us on another topic to stop beating dead horses…

or at least to take a charitable seasonal break in the ongoing political animosity.

but what do we have to share if not our personal stories?

Some of them are full of good cheer and the desire to help others.

Some of them are full of sadness.

Some of them are full of righteous indignation.

Some of them are simply informative.

and yes, some of them are full of bitterness.

some of us care deeply about what we post about

other post to get a reaction

but i have seen personal stories aired on this forum take on lives of their own that had totally unintended consequences.

I have seen us step up as a community to help one another…

and to help those who we will never meet and who are likely never to post here.

Passionate people are passionate about many things… we care deeply and speak our truths with conviction .. this is a good thing

we are very lucky to live in such a passionate community

and to have a place to air our passions

thank you WSB

thank you forum posters, lurkers and critics all

and to each and every one of you the merriest of Christmas seasons..

whatever you choose to celebrate… or not :)

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[DBP]

Thanks for saying all this, Jo.

As for me, I’ll drop the politics from Christmas Eve through New Years, but that’s the best I can do. As a rule, I try not to poop on other people’s grief threads, but you know, it’s hard to resist when people are saying stuff like: “Why? Why? Why did this happen?”

I mean . . . correct me if I’m wrong but . . . when you say: Why?  –aren’t you inviting people to answer?

 

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There’s a built-in paradox with public tragedies. If the tragedy was preventable (and they usually are) then when’s the best time to talk about prevention? Is it when people are still feeling the full weight of the tragedy and can see it on their TV screens every night? Or is it months later, when they’re thinking about where to take the family for summer vacation, or what the Mariners’ chances are?

Of course the best time to talk about it is when the grief is still fresh. On the other hand, when people are grieving, the very last thing they want to talk about is . . . anything contentious.

Unfortunately, there are no road maps here. There’s no agreed-on period of non-debate after a tragedy, and you don’t hear people saying things like, “I’ll be ready to talk about politics again in exactly one week, so get back to me then.”

 

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Want another personal observation? OK, here’s one that I think is relevant to this topic. Then I’ll quit the field . . .

 

After 9/11, I remember people saying that it was the “end of joy” the “death of irony” and so on. Of course, those predictions were not borne out, but there was something very nearly as awful that did happen. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, before the dust had even settled, a war was begun. And before that war was even concluded, ANOTHER war was begun. Supposedly the two wars were related to the same thing (terrorism) but if you had the temerity to ask to review the plan for either one, you’d be roundly shushed.

“How dare you bring politics into this now, when people are still mourning, when our troops are fighting and dying!”

Mm. That was more than 11 years ago. It’s sobering to think that some little boy who was barely out of kindergarten on 9/11 could be fighting in Afghanistan today. Yet even now, Americans still do not want to talk frankly about what we’re doing there, even though I could tell you in a New York second.*

 

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* Losing

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[miws]

Well stated, Jo…

Mike

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[wakeflood]

Jo, feel like I should clarify my “chiding”. I was merely reflecting on a particularly relentless thread that had devolved to what seems to be a fairly consistent stalemate ’round these here parts. So I sorta’ asked for a truce, half tongue-in-cheek, for the purposes of moving on to other potentially more productive threads. Tying in the story of the “Christmas Truce of 1914” just seemed appropriate somehow.

I have zero issue with sharing personal stories. I think they can often make the intangibles, tangible, or describe how theory translates to practice, etc. I’m glad to hear them and share them when I have something pertinent.

I just think I’ll be taking a break from the political area as well for a while too. :-)

So, start ’em up and share away all, and have the best holiday you can manage.

Best,

Wake.

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[JanS]

DBP…sometimes when we ask the Why? question, it’s rhetorical, as we can’t possibly understand “intelligent” reasons given. Sometimes it doesn’t require you to answer…

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[JanS]

And, yes, there is so much going on in my personal life right now, that, while I will still be around, I am trying to stay away from politics or anything contentious…

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[JoB]

wake..

you are right of course.. that conversation really doesn’t have anyplace constructive to go…

but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t constructive to say what needs to be said…

if only politics was some grand game that had nothing to do with our lives..

but the truth is that the end result of the political gamesmanship affects how people we know live.

throwing a 3 month food budget for seniors and the disabled on the table today as a bargaining chip towards getting Republicans to agree to ending some of the Bush era tax cuts will have a huge impact on the lives of people who depend upon that money to pay their bills.

The real death squad in America has more to do with poverty than with who decides what medical care you can get.

Increasing poverty for the most fragile Americans while protecting tax breaks for the most wealthy just isn’t in the spirit of the season.

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