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Applying the brakes for a moment. Hello, citizens! Please allow me to introduce myself to those of you that haven't read my previous comments, and re-introduce myself to those who have. My name is ionizd. In the interest of my family's safety, that's the only name I will give online. I will tell you a bit about myself, but in a somewhat generalized fashion for the same reason. I am a white male, fortyish, and a proud and very tired father of a seven year old developmentally challenged boy. I am also a stepfather of a 22 year old girl and a recent grandfather to a chubby newborn baby girl. I am happily married to a wonderful and completely insane woman who is good enough to look past all my faults and loves me anyway. I am a resident of Fayette county, Georgia since 2001. I work two jobs, the first and most lucrative of which is in the environmental services industry. Since the manufacturing and R&D markets have been severely curtailed by the economic downturn of recent times, however, my schedule has been cut to an unacceptable degree. Because of this, I have been forced to find part-time employment servicing equipment in another industry on weekends. My wife is also fortunately employed, and we will somehow muddle through if the status quo can be maintained. My fear, however, is that things will get much worse, and that could be enough to tip the balance and topple my fragile family into financial ruin. I, like many of my peers, respond to fear with anger. I'm frustrated, what can I say? I decided to start this blog in this manner because I've been participating in a lot of discussions on this website, and I sat down tonight with a Sam Adams Octoberfest- -A delightful brew if there ever was one, but sadly only available during the fall-- all prepared to wade into the battle once more. It has been a long day. I worked today and my leg , which I injured earlier in the week, is hurting like a bastard. I'm not in the mood, however, to snap off either a biting response or a long-winded diatribe like usual. I decided to just read on. As I read the recent comments of my peers and backtracked through many of the discussions to find their responses to my own comments, the angry tones started to really resonate in my mind. Even discounting the comments of several well-known provocateurs, the rhetoric has gotten loud and in many cases, very ugly. People are ticked off in a major way, and it has affected certain changes in the way people conduct themselves. For example, ordinarily genteel members have recently blown their cool and resorted to angry ad hominem comments that stand in stark contrast to their normal polite commentary. Some have been much more sarcastic and provocative, instigating mean-spirited and hotly worded exchanges with their hapless (and sometimes not so hapless) opponents in the debate. I've seen many more “gotchas”, “I-told-you-so's and “in your face's” in the last few weeks than in the many months preceding. Let's not forget the wild and unsubstantiated accusations flying back and forth concerning people's alleged character flaws. I do not except myself from this observation. I'm angry and fearful for the future, and it makes me forget myself sometimes. That's why I decided to supply the seemingly irrelevant and innocuous information at the beginning of this commentary. I'd like you to know that I want to make a lasting and positive contribution to the discussion, and I don't believe the way to that is through angry rhetoric and ad hominem attacks. So, I want to remind all of you out there that the person you are speaking to is, first and foremost, a person. They may be a mother, father or grandmother. They may deserve your sympathy because they may not have anyone at all to share their life with. Their kids may be sitting with them as they read a personal rudeness you've posted on this forum about them. They may have just had a horrible argument with their spouse, or been denied sex (again). They may have just been informed that they will be losing their job. Their car may have just died. Or their dog. Or someone in their family. I would like to believe that despite the differences in opinion we may have, most of us share common aspects of our lives. Most of us are just ordinary folks with above average IQ's (if you're like me, that is!), who get up in the morning and go to work, no matter how tired or sick or unhappy we may be. Scratching out a living is getting harder, and no matter who we blame, it certainly shouldn't be directed at our fellow citizens. The fact is, they are probably having just as much trouble as you are. How much they make or the size of their house is, for the most part, irrelevant. Everyone has their own set of burdens to bear and pitfalls to avoid. I'm going to make you, dear reader, a promise or two. I will take an extra minute to consider the humanity of the person I'm responding to before popping off a stinging retort, I will try to ignore those comments that are designed to draw me into a high-tech shouting match, and I will try to make positive policy suggestions rather than sharp criticism. In other words, I promise to try to be more upbeat and pleasant when I speak to any of you, and I'll try not to allow either my bad days or yours to turn me into a “Richard”. Will all of you do me the honor of making it easier to keep my promises by doing the same? ionizd's blog | login to post comments
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