And yet, for all that, I’ve decided to put my two cents into this little contretemps. You may have noticed that Texas has been in the news a bit this last week, which is of course due to our warm climate, abundant tourist spots, and friendly people. Oh, and maybe because of an abortion bill in the Texas Legislature.
There was a time, for about 30 seconds 10 days ago, when I thought that maybe Texas’ governing body was going to have a sensible discussion about this bill and its realities for Texas. I thought that just maybe some sort of agreement could be reached that perhaps neither side would regard as perfect, but that we could all move forward with. Maybe this time.
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| Texas Tribune's photo of the Texas Capitol Rotunda during the debate/ filibuster on June 25. |
I imagine this will end the way the party in power in Texas wants it to end—the bill will become law, and we’ll all get to see what happens next. But there are unintended consequences of this
Seriously, I’m tired of our laws, of our nation, being a zero-sum game. Can we please get our act together? Maybe find a better way? Or at least refrain from showing off how horrible people can be just because they disagree?
(You'll notice I didn't give you my opinion here. That's because—and I know I'm in the minority here—I believe my readers can come to their own conclusions without a blogger ranting at them. Incidentally, that comment section down there? Keep it clean and civil, or be deleted.)
7 comments:
A touchy subject for sure. Everyone seems to think that their opinion is the correct one....and it is, for THEM.
Exactly. And the emotions are running so rampant. I don't know if there's a way back.
Unintended consequences is a politically correct way of seeing the same events that are aptly described with "pride comes before the fall."
But, change the way we talk about it and it makes people feel like there is something different going on. It would be nice if we were all able to get to the heart of the issue instead of hiding behind our language.
Our culture does that for us well. Double entendre is how we like to communicate in this culture, but we really only have one intent. Soon we believe we actually have the intent our language is hiding and we don't.
The only way we will all be able to have our ideas and have them all be accepted as equally valid is if they don't contradict each other and the only way to do that is to be extremely specific. So specific that the real size of our ideas can be seen, instead of trying to make them seem so huge.
I'm not trying to rant, just trying to consider what this means. ;)
Hear! Hear!
We are all honored citizens, standing for RIGHTS. Abusing other rights in the process and demeaning others is a true reflection upon yourself.
Several sayings come to mind, but I think the most relevant is that the Texas government is cutting off its nose to spite its face.
I have been seeking change in Texas politics for a long time, and I am glad to sense that it is coming, but at what cost? We have sacrificed our dignity, and wasn't that what we were all fighting for in the first place?
Throwing the baby (in this instance, somewhat literally) out with the bathwater (in this case, your standards, self-respect, and dignity), doesn't produce any benefit to the cause you are fighting for.
There is a benefit however, by alienating yourself from your constituency and demeaning yourself to the level of school yard children goes a long way toward helping your opponent in the next election, and for that I am grateful.
I have only seldom been ashamed to be a Texan, and today is one of those days.
Well said, both of you.
Very well said! I just wish the people who so desperately need to read it would.
The whole point of politics seems to be to make it an us-versus-them mentality, something popular in middle school. And to be truthful, I think the whole point of the internet is also to behave like a child, so when you combine the two things, it gets quite bad.
Yep. When you start breaking every freaking thing down to ingroup/outgroup, us v them, and so on, people just dig in. And then nothing gets done. To wit: Congress. :(
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