Sticks and Stones

Bully by trix0r
via Flickr creative commons

Do you remember those little phrases that we were taught as children to remind us that words couldn't hurt us? Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me. My grandmother used to say that people had to have permission to hurt my feelings. That was a good one too. I'm sure there are many more throughout the country, because bullies are nothing new. Most of the time, in my experience, they are people (children or adults) that feel inadequate in some form or fashion. Maybe they weren't hugged enough as children or maybe they feel themselves slipping in a battle of wits. When you get down to it, it rarely matters when you're at the other end of it.

Bullies are nothing new. Today's children see them, yesterday's children, and so on and so on. Sometimes it's a kid on the playground, a boss, or a dictator. When you narrow it down, they're all bullies. It depends on what level of power they're given on how much destruction they can cause.

I think we can all agree that bullying is wrong. There are campaigns and movements to stop bullying with kids, so why is it that our national government strives to teach it day in and day out? These men and women that we've hired - yes, folks, your tax dollars pays for their lifestyle, so don't think for two seconds that we didn't hire them - to represent us have become little more than tantrum throwing children in some cases. I've seen in happened to others and I've been on the receiving end of it. 

Racist. Bigot. Sexist. Closed-minded. Un-accepting . Hateful. Angry. Stupid. 

I'm a bit of an idealist. I'm okay with admitting that. Being an idealist, whenever someone claims to be open-minded, for years I took them at their word. They wanted to have an adult conversation, a debate of ideals, knowing that we weren't going to change each other's minds, but interested to know what an other intelligent human being thought. Perhaps that's not what they meant by "open-minded." Perhaps I don't understand the meaning.

I have a theory that if you step out and say "I believe in [insert your belief here]" and truly believe in it, you cannot believe that anyone else that differs from that opinion is correct. I don't think this is a negative thing. There is a difference, though, in polite disagreement and arrogance. Polite disagreement is where both parties respect each other (granted, you may find the other person's belief to be so far-fetched that you can't bring yourself to respect that, but you can be gracious about it and respect the individual for their right to believe as they do) and show a certain level of maturity about it, even if neither party will ever be swayed by the other. Guess what? That's okay. This country was built for a variety of different beliefs. It's when we start stifling one or two groups that we start hedging on dangerous territory. 

To those liberal Democrats that truly are open-minded, and I have met some, I want to take a moment to thank you. Thank you for breaking the mold. To those that like to lure idealists such as myself into a conversation and when you find something you disagree with break out the insulting phrases above: just say no. It's rude and it's childish to name-call, not to mention that it greatly takes away from the actual meaning of the phrases you use. A person is not a racist for disagreeing with Barack Obama. He would be a racist if he thought that the only reason that the current president shouldn't hold office was because of the color of his skin. When you throw around terms such as this lightly, it degrades the true meaning. A bit like crying wolf. 

Don't be the bully in the ideological and political playground. If you have a valid point to make, then make it. Name calling is what you do when you lose control. We're all guilty of it at some point, but we have to learn to curb that lash-out mentality and debate openly if we are to fix anything in this country. Bullying people into believing as we do is not the answer. Maybe if we start showing respect amongst ourselves we'll start hiring representatives with some respect of their own. 

Remembering Margaret Thatcher

It's interesting to think how posterity may view us. There are so many ways that people are classified: They were part of this generation or that generation. Were they involved with a political or social movement? Did they write anything of great consequence? Did their words touch many? Were they alone, standing apart from their peers, for better or worse? Or, like most, did they simply fade into the crowd? Family will remember for a while and friends might think fondly, but their names will not be left in to the chronicles of time.

I heard someone say recently: people are remembered in history for being either exceptionally evil or exceptionally good.

This past Tuesday I posted on my Facebook account that I had read some very hateful responses to Margaret Thatcher's passing this Monday. I noted that it was interesting that a woman was dead and the the Left was celebrating it. Isn't the Left meant to be the open-minded, open-armed side of politics? There has been celebration in the street, anti-Thatcher groups encouraging people to buy the song "Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead", and, even more recently, our own Senate has blocked a resolution to honor Thatcher in her passing.

I received some interesting responses from the post. Many were positive towards the former Prime Minister, but the one that caught my attention and really started me thinking on this post (because, come on, let's face it, when people you know, people you've gone to school with say things, it has a little more meaning than a journalist in an article) was from an individual that I was acquainted with at university.  His response was as follows:

Thatcher was one [of] the "left's" main opposition during her life. I would expect the same were her affiliation switched and the "right" would be throwing the parties. 

It will always be like this with major figure heads passing. A little out-of-the-box thinking will reveal this.

It's funny, because I don't remember dancing in the street when, say, Ted Kennedy died and he was pretty far to the left in his political opinion. People didn't gather in the street to celebrate his suffering, to sing and to dance and to potentially interrupt the funeral. Many conservatives were not fond of his approach to many subjects, but there was no celebration of death there. Apathy, perhaps, but no celebration. (I did note this to him, but he failed to respond.)

How much do you know about Lady Thatcher? On the day of her death I knew very little beyond she was a staunch leader of the Conservative party in England, had been the Prime Minister in the same time period as Ronald Reagan served as president, and was nicknamed the Iron Lady. (There was also the propaganda posters that showed up in passing on that one Doctor Who episode, but I digress...)

Realizing that I knew very little about her other than these things I did what any 21st century, semi-tech savvy individual does: I googled it. I'm very wary of where content comes from because it tends towards bias (as does my blog, but I'm okay with admitting this openly). I simply do not know enough about British politics to be able to adequately search through multiple websites and decipher how credible they were. Certainly not within enough time for this post. Being that as it was, I settled on what I felt was a fairly safe site for straight-forward, biographical information about Margaret Thatcher: The Margaret Thatcher Foundation.

A few brief tidbits from this overview-biography of an extraordinary woman:

• She was born a grocer's daughter and rose in politics to be the youngest female political candidate in the UK
• Though challenged by half a dozen senior colleagues, she became the first woman ever to lead a Western political party and to serve as Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons
• She is, currently, the only woman to have held the seat of Prime Minister in England
• She served from 1979 - 1990
• She turned the British economy around for the better
• She survived an attack by the IRA on her life

The Left often speaks of the need for strong women in politics, but when a strong conservative woman comes forward she is met with hate and disdain, such as has been seen in the aftermath of Lady Thatcher's passing. One of the commenters on the Facebook conversation stated that it shows a certain lack of class, and I'm inclined to agree with him.