Mar 31 2005
I Am What I Am
On Friday it will be two weeks since Terri’s feeding tube was removed. In that time, I have seen the true wretches of society bubble up in the cesspool.
Oh sure there are legal issues surrounding the case and those are worth discussing because the outcome of this case, one way or the other, will shape the way things are done from here until the end of eternity. Whatever way this ends, it will be nothing short of a landmark moment in American History.
It seems everywhere you look people are choosing sides. Some, like myself, believe saving Terri’s life is the most important thing we can do right now. Others believe otherwise. I am in the minority. I’m well aware of this fact, and I have no intention of changing my position just because it isn’t popular or cool.
But what absolutely amazes me is the complete and utter stupidity of some of the other low-class scumbags out there; some of them people I used to call “friends.”
One such “friend” while conversing with another such “friend” likened me to a Jesus freak who was intolerant of people who didn’t agree, and was stupid for believing what I do. Another friend accused me of ‘roid rage because after pressuring me in multiple interrogative emails, I told her once and for all to fuck off. Certain other friends found it funny to discuss myself and another blogging colleague in a chat room mockingly because we dare believe in God.
All the while one of these “friends” was crying on the shoulder of another about the lack of “real tolerance” in the blogosphere these days for anyone who “wasn’t wrapping themselves in the cause of Terri Schiavo.” I got comments from a guy who has never before read my blog, but who felt it necessary to point out that I didn’t get loud about the Schiavo case until Friday when the feeding tube was removed.
Well no shit, sherlock! What was there to write about before that? I wrote about Terri off and on from 2003 on, but the case blew up two weeks ago. What do you expect?
It isn’t about fame. God knows nobody knows who I am now, and nobody will know who I am when this is over. It isn’t about some religious kookism; if I walked into a church tomorrow the roof would probably collapse on me. It certainly isn’t just a “W says it, I agree” mantra. I’m hardly a partisan and anyone who knows me knows better. And it certainly isn’t about maintaining friendships. Let me explain to you what I mean by that.
I had a group of friends and we all used to hang out in a great little chat room set up by myself and another blog owner. Things were great.
But there was one thing I could never get over, and it’s the utter arrogance of the “atheists” in the group. In fact, during one discussion, the conversation went something like:
Me: I don’t understand why every atheist looks down their nose at people who believe in God like they’re stupid.
Asshole Reply: Because they are.
Me: You’re kidding, right?
Asshole Reply: Nope.
That’s the kind of stuff I used to just put aside.
Why do I bring this up now?
Because there’s some kind of notion out there among the people I used to call friends that this is some kind of snobbery on my part; or the defending of an “easy cause” that will cost me nothing in the long run. I’ve heard that I’m only defending Terri’s life because, well, it’s easy for me. I lose nothing in the end, and I look good doing it.
To whom?
If this is some vain attempt at making myself more popular and trying to influence people, wouldn’t it have been smarter to pick a better cause to do it with? I mean, as the same idiots saying this to me like to point out, most of the country doesn’t agree with me. Who am I trying to “get in” with? Those are the same people who accuse Bush of playing to his base with this, and yet even recent polls (putting aside the specific questions) show that even 80% of evangelicals, his very base, don’t like what he’s doing.
So who am I trying to impress?
The answer is no one.
I don’t really care if you like me, hate me, love me, think I’m a religious kook, think I’m an asshole, think I’m some rosary-kissing fundamental christian bible-banging nutcase… I really don’t care. I don’t care if you think I’m intolerant, mislead, hopped up on steroids, or whatever dismissive bullshit you’ve come up with to justify my position on this case.
But to the people that stick around, here’s a piece of information you probably already know:
I don’t hide my opinions, feelings, thoughts, or anything else. If I feel something, I say it. I don’t keep comments closed when posts get ugly (although if they veer too far off topic, sometimes I do). Other bloggers have resorted to closing comments in the middle of discussions so they can have the last word while the conversation was still going on.
With me, what you see is what you get, like it or not.
In fact, most of the people who hate me know for my stance on this issue and the amount of passion I put behind it are people who loved me in the past, but it was all over the same thing: I’m a straight-shooter and I speak my mind whenever I see fit. If you piss me off, you’re gonna catch some shit for it. I don’t care if you’re a hypocritical blogger, a former friend accusing me of drug-use, a closeted gay blogger who’s scared to come out, a smoker with a heart condition, or anyone else you wanna be.
At one point you loved me for speaking my mind, as long as I was doing it to The Other Guytm.
Terri has my support until the day she dies, and her family has my support long after that.
If you’re okay with me being a stubborn bastard, hang around. I’ll argue with you until you fall on the floor, and then we can go out afterward and have a beer and laugh about it. If you don’t like it, click the back button and move along; I don’t have time in my life for hypocritical shitbags who are only my friend when the criticism is directed elsewhere.
I choose to defend Terri, and I’m not the least bit ashamed of it.
March 31st, 2005 at 6:21 am
I’d like to point out that not every atheist is evangelically anti-religion. However, I do find it ironic that many atheists don’t realize that they practice a form of fundamentalism themselves and fail to see that they are every bit as guilty of the oppression as they accuse others of.
March 31st, 2005 at 6:47 am
I’m saying, dude.
March 31st, 2005 at 7:38 am
As a general rule, atheists are the most intolerant group of people. I put them on par with the evangelicals. Fanatic in their beliefs with no room for anyone but the like-minded, AND they feel it’s their job to spread that loudly.
And your fucking post button doesn’t work in firefox for me. I’m using the flag thingy look.
March 31st, 2005 at 7:47 am
I use firefox and have had no problem with the post button. :p
March 31st, 2005 at 7:52 am
I’ve been having all kinds of issues out of nowhere with the post buttons on the comments section timing out in FF (intermittently) and zero problems with IE.
Of course, I didn’t have those problems until they updated FF to 1.02….
March 31st, 2005 at 9:28 am
We disagree on a number of topics, but happen to agree on this one. I’ve never called you “stupid” for your beliefs, though. I know that your positions are well-thought out and reasoned, even if I have arrived at a different conclusion by my own reasoning. I get bored with the name-calling practiced by some of the commenters. It’s just futile and is not really a comment but more of a diatribe. It proves nothing. Back to the subject: this particular case will have far-reaching effects for future medical and ethical questions. And, someone should tell the Pope not to visit Florida while he’s on the feeding tube.
March 31st, 2005 at 9:54 am
Cait, You said it all right here in a very few sentences. I get bored with the name-calling practiced by some of the commenters. It’s just futile and is not really a comment but more of a diatribe. It proves nothing. Back to the subject: this particular case will have far-reaching effects for future medical and ethical questions. And, someone should tell the Pope not to visit Florida while he’s on the feeding tube.
The nastiness takes away from the whole meaning of what this story is about. Ditto on telling the Pope too.
March 31st, 2005 at 9:55 am
Vinny,
You’re actually describing the reason why I can’t stand a lot of the most vocal pundits — we’ll count Rush and Anne amongst two of them.
It boils down to respect.
People will disagree with one another. Their belief systems might be at odds, or they might take different sides of an opinion. You obviously don’t need to AGREE with everybody about everything, but, at the very least, you should RESPECT their beliefs or opinions.
Most of us would like to get people to change their opinions so they match our own. I can’t imagine being able to do that without showing some measure of respect for the other person first.
March 31st, 2005 at 9:55 am
I’ll be the first to admit I have no qualms calling people stupid but if it’s in good fun and I know the person.
But some of the shit I’ve heard has just been too much for me to take coming from people who should know better.
March 31st, 2005 at 10:07 am
May Terri rest in peace.
March 31st, 2005 at 10:24 am
Vinny, You have pretty much said everything that I have thought and lived for most of my life. RESPECT, I’m afraid, is a long gone term. It is neither taught nor practiced on a nationwide or citywide scale anymore. I was raised on it. Big time! I have never been on a blog so don’t know anything about it. I found this place looking for something on Terri. Just nice to read and learn from the words here.
March 31st, 2005 at 12:00 pm
As an undergrad, I was a Computer Science major, but I took a lot of Philosophy classes because I freakin’ love philosophy. Now what follows is not boasting, I really only say it to make a point (and my post is fairly anonymous). After every philosophy course I took, my professors told me I should be a phil. major. I had teachers pull me aside after reading my phil. papers and tell me to submit them to conferences and the like. I am also a scientist - I will be starting Medical School next Fall (’06), after I take the MCAT this Spring. I have been scoring in the 90th percentile on the practice tests I’ve taken, and expect to do even better on the real one (April 16). I know the basic science principles, and I am damn good at scientific reasoning. I also graduated with honors, and was Magna Cum Laude…
BUT!
I am an open Christian. In my phil classes, I was often the only (open) Christian. Despite the fact that I regularly lead class discussions, was (intelectually) intimidating to many of my peers, and generally respected and well liked, when the topic of religion came up, I suddenly had down syndrome and was an ‘idiot’ of ‘blind faith’. Honestly, the exact same people who would defer to me in philosophical debates attcked me like hawks when Christianity was brought up. Of course, many of the most agressive anti-Christian ‘philosophers’ were, in fact, quite unintelligent. Most couldn’t even come up with an opinion, let alone an argument, unless they were attacking someone else for being a Christian. No intelligent, well-reasoned arguments I could make were even considered by the other students - they already made up their minds and had no intentions of rethinking thier positions. In fact, I felt like they were equally as thick-headed as bible-bangers who believe in a literal interpretation of every word of the Good Book.
The moral of the story:
Many Chrisitans are unintelligent, thick-headed, zealots. Most atheists are too. Fuck ‘em both. I’ll consider any thoughtful arguments, pro- or anti- Jesus, pro- or anti- Life, but fuck off if you want me to accept your opinion without argument becuase it’s ‘obvious’ and ‘of the majority’.
March 31st, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Perhaps one of the lessons of the Schiavo case and this post is that when push comes to shove it’s hard to put people in a box. All of the accepted thought propagated by the MSM regarding this case went into the toilet. Bush was playing to his base; according to the polls that’s BS. We have a conservative Supreme Court dominated by right-wing natural law extremists. That’s BS. Republicans always act in lockstep with each other. The Florida state legislature proved that to be BS. Democrats always act in lockstep with each other. Joe Lieberman, Tom Harkin, Jesse Jackson, Lanny Davis, etc. proved that theory to be BS. It was hard to separate the country into blue and red on this one. The extreme ends of both sides of the political spectrum were the only ones who acted predictably.
I am still a strong republican, and I believe that my party’s ideals are better than the other party’s, but there are issues in life bigger and more complex than party/ideological loyalty. This was one of them!
March 31st, 2005 at 6:44 pm
intolerant of people who didn’t agree. In all the years I’ve been blogging, I have only one former friend–you. Not because I want it, but because you do. And not because no one reads my blog, enough people do.
And not because everyone (however small the crowd may be) agrees with what I post.
I still come here every day and read everything you write. I disagree alot, but that’s kind of what I like about IT. And I will continue to visit here regardless of how you feel about me.
One of the differences between you and I is that I DO care what people think of me, because I care about them. I care about YOU.
Otherwiae I would not visit here at all.
March 31st, 2005 at 7:47 pm
Bsti, you started the whole thing. Contrary to your heartwarming lyrics above, I don’t give two shits about you, your site, or anything else.
See how that works?
I don’t care about you. Short of death, I don’t care what happens for you. If you died, I’d be saddened, but beyond that I just don’t care.
I don’t want you to care about me. I don’t want you to visit. I don’t want you to comment.
In short, I want nothing to do with you.