Featured Rightgrrl for August, 1997
LORRI!
Politically: I am a conservative Republican DittoHead, however,
I sometimes vote democrat and/or independent when the
lesser of three evils is also pro-life.
Hobbies: Filling the hall closet with half-finished crafting
projects, reading, bicycling, web-page construction, and
net surfing.
Web Page:
Like many people, I enjoy participating in and watching debates. Since
the development of the Internet, I have been enjoying reading from and
posting to newsgroups. You can learn a great deal when you listen to
thoughtful people on different sides of an issue expose facts, make
assertions, and draw conclusions.
Debates today look more like tabloid T.V. and less like intellectual
discussions of issues. People yell and scream at one another, throw
around meaningless statistics, repeat anecdotal stories that they heard
"somewhere" from "someone", and pound their fists on the tables. At last,
when they find that they are unable to make their points or when they fail
to persuade others to believe the same way that they do, they resort to
name calling and mud slinging. One person makes a statement of fact and
another person says point blank that he refuses to accept that fact *as
fact* because it clashes
with what he holds to be "true" and "right". People stubbornly hold to
their opinions simply because they are too proud to consider the fact that
they may have been wrong.
We get our facts and beliefs today from two minute sound bites that we see
on the television newscasts. You hear it once from Dan Rather and
suddenly it's gospel truth. Without any research of the facts on our part,
without thought to what's being said, we adopt the ideas that the media
feeds us and then tenaciously cling to them out of pride, foolishness,
familiarity, laziness, or fear of going against the tide. I used to be
that way as a teenager. Hearing two seconds of one side of the story was
all I needed, or so I thought, to be an informed individual. I thought
that I knew everything that there was to know, and I thought that the
entire world was breathless in anticipation of my opinions and beliefs.
At some point I discovered that I actually knew very little, that many of
the things that I believed to be true, were actually false, and that I had
a lot of growing up to do and a lot of knowledge yet to acquire.
The most alarming thing that I've noticed recently in watching debates and
participating in newsgroups, is that we no longer give people that we
disagree with respect. I was taught to respect my elders, because they
were wiser than I, respect my parents because God had ordained my care to
them, respect authority because they were looking after my interests and
safety, respect my siblings because they were family, respect my neighbors
and peers because they were precious fellow human beings. Now we teach
that respect is something that is conditionally doled out only to those
that we deem "deserving". We've forgotten that we can disagree with
someone and still respect them, respect their intellects, respect their
knowledge. If for *no other reason*, we should be respectful to one
another so that we may in turn be treated with respect.
I now see the truth of this Proverb: "A man of knowledge uses words with
restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered. Even a fool is
thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue."
And the truth of this old saying: "Better to keep silent and be thought a
fool, than to open your mouth and prove it.".
And That's all I have to say about that.
Name: Lorri Miller
Age: 29 (Thirty this month)
Occupation:
Our Tax returns say that I am a Domestic Engineer. I'm
one of a vanishing breed, the HouseWife. I have five
beautiful children that I am uniquely qualified to love,
cherish and educate. I also have a wonderful husband that
has given me
the life I dreamed of as a child.
Like Sounding Gongs - Debate in
America
Rodney King once uttered the phrase, "Can't we all just get along?" To
some his statement has become something of a joke, but to me, it's a
question that I ask more and more each day.
 HOME |
E-mail |
Original
Rightgrrls |
Library |
Links |
What We Think! |