And ever since when to conservative principles amount to "prejudices?"
Anyways...click on the link to read the rest of the letter.
I'll post Miss Manners' PC response below...
Miss Manners responds:
Gentle Reader: What you hear in the street is called freedom of speech. And considering your relatives, it does not sound as if you need to go out looking for an argument. Not that what you have described to Miss Manners resembles anything like a political argument.
So yes, you should ignore strangers. And if you can get away from your relatives when they are carrying on, and do so without making a scene, you should.
It would be better to make an agreement with them that because you have such different views, and because airing them leads to unpleasantness, talking politics be banned when you are together.
It is of no benefit to the children for you to engage in exchanges of name-calling. However, your conscience would be proud of you if you sought opportunities with them to explain and refute prejudice — without personally attacking your and their relatives
“a T-shirt that said “celebrate diversity” covered with an assortment of brightly colored guns”
I want one!
And the fact they wrote to Miss Manners about it isn't a dead giveaway?
“I live in a small, relatively liberal town in a very red state...”
Welcome to the Town of Libsville
Population 2
I.Q. 12 (combined)
You're both!
Dear Miss Manners:
I don't know what to do...the other day, I was driving home in my SUV, when I came upon a small hybrid with a rainbow bumper sticker on it...they also had one of those "fish" things on their car with feet on it. While I was picking up my children from public school, I saw teachers handing out pamphlets to "help save the planet." In the school parking lot, another teacher looked at my SUV with disdain, and I know she wanted to start an argument since she could see the hand-rolled cigar in my mouth...
Uh! That was me!
Dear Miss Manners,
Everywhere I go I see stoooopid liberal bumper stickers with the most annoying slogans such as “Hillary in 08” or “Impeach Bush”...... I am tempted to ram my Ford F-350 truck into the backsides of some of these little weasel Toyota liberal machines..... would it be too intolerant of me to smash a couple of these morons so hard they don’t know what hit them?
Sincerely,
Pissed Off in Peoria
Don’t talk to the bad people.
My neighbor has a Che Guevara T and he stenciled “Murdering Commie Bastard” underneath the image....just great!
“I’m getting very tired of showing tolerance to the intolerant.”
Uh, what?
How magnanimous of the friend to “let people” practice their freedom of speech! Gee, it feels like my freakin birthday!
Dear Miss manners,
I was at a local sporting event when I noticed an adult male talking during the national anthem. He was also wearing a hat. After the last note sounded I pulled him aside and explained proper etiquette for showing respect to the flag and then I kicked his ass. Later as I left the stadium I saw three men burning a U.S. flag. So I also kicked their asses.
That evening as I was leaving the VFW I saw a two young punks mocking a disabled vet in a wheelchair. I explained to the punks that, regardless of the rank he held while he served, you should always pay the highest respect to all military veterans. I described to them how these veterans fought for the very freedom they basks in every second. After I enlightened them on the many sacrifices these veterans made to make this Nation great I held them down while the vet kicked their asses.
The next day I was walking by a commie, code-pink, antiwar rally. Several hippies looked very sloppy and were improperly wearing uniform items. I approached them and asked them why. They claimed to be Rangers and Seals and started making outrageous claims that they committed war crimes under the illegal orders of their commanders. After engaging them in conversation I quickly discerned their claims were false, so I kicked their asses.
This caused me to work up an appetite. I entered a local diner where two young boys were playing a video game. One boy had lost the game and said to the other boy, “Your mama wears combat boots!” I took the lad aside and explained that if his mother wore combat boots she would most likely be a vet and therefore could easily kick his ass.
So please remember -
“It is the Veteran, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press.
“It is the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.
“It is the Veteran, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.
“It is the Military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”
Signed,
A. Grizzled Bear
(This post is a variation of an essay I saw here on FR)
I believe I see her problem. She lives in a very red state.
There are plenty of people I agree with politically that are complete and total jerks.
They make us look bad and only serve to drive away people who might otherwise be inclined to listen to our ideas.
Here is my translation of that sentence into something a bit more honest:
I hear jokes or comments that are neither racist, sexist, nor homophobic, but I choose to interpret them as such, because I love the smug feeling I get when I manage to convince myself that I have been offended.
A liberal being raceists? Who woulda thunk it?
HEH HEH... :)
“What should I do in these situations? When the people are strangers, I bite my tongue for the sake of maintaining a civil society. But what do you do when they are relatives?”
Get a DNA test.
Because of your thread, I discovered Ask Amy! < :D