With all of the school violence lately, I've been writing e-mails to a lot of reporters. I thought I'd toss out my thoughts on the point of doing so. Nothing new or revelatory, but maybe a reminder to stay on The High Road. For me, convincing someone with very different views of something reminds me of a situation from college.
I had this friend, John, in my freshman dorm who hated homosexuals. Hated. This other guy, Bill, that became friends with most of us, was gay.
John at first hated Bill because he was gay. But he was forced to be around him. As he saw more and more of Bill, he started to realize that Bill wasn't going to rape him or anything. At first, he just asked him a lot of sterotypical questions. Bill was a sport and would answer him honestly, but lightly, and was a funny guy.
John went from hatred to a kind of fascination to finally being friends with Bill just like the rest of us. He was no longer that queer, he was Bill. Bill was gay, but so what. Dave was Philippino, I was a vegetarian, Paul was southern. The key was him realizing that being gay wasn't just this thing he could label him with and not have to think about anything else.
It's a slow process, but I think that writing intelligently and calmly to the antis helps accomplish that first step. It makes them realize that we're not foaming at the mouth overall-wearing fat guys all just dying for our chance to blow someone away with one of our two hundred guns. And hopefully it helps remind us that not every anti out there is some quivering liberal who's afraid of his own shadow and wants to lock us away.
It's not going to change with my letter, of course. But maybe one day one of these authors says to some rabid anti, "Well, I know a lot of them are like that, but I've actually gotten a lot of really intelligent well-reasoned letters from them..." Then maybe he sees a news story about someone saving someone else with a firearm and thinks back to all of those rational, calm letters he's seen and thinks, "Gosh, maybe that wasn't just some cowboy looking to blow someone away. Maybe that really was just someone doing what they had to to protect someone."
I also always bring up my girlfriend and how I want her to be able to protect herself. I think the idea of a small woman being able to realistically defend herself from a large man intent on attacking her is a very compelling argument. I don't know who couldn't cheer for a gal blowing away a would-be rapist.
Finally, I've been closing with an offer to come along for some safe, fun shooting any time and saying I'll buy the ammo. Deep down inside everyone wants to shoot, don't they?
I don't mean to come off preachy. I've really been affected by those on here who write effectively and intelligently and just wanted to say thanks and that you've got one more guy doing his best to do the same.
I had this friend, John, in my freshman dorm who hated homosexuals. Hated. This other guy, Bill, that became friends with most of us, was gay.
John at first hated Bill because he was gay. But he was forced to be around him. As he saw more and more of Bill, he started to realize that Bill wasn't going to rape him or anything. At first, he just asked him a lot of sterotypical questions. Bill was a sport and would answer him honestly, but lightly, and was a funny guy.
John went from hatred to a kind of fascination to finally being friends with Bill just like the rest of us. He was no longer that queer, he was Bill. Bill was gay, but so what. Dave was Philippino, I was a vegetarian, Paul was southern. The key was him realizing that being gay wasn't just this thing he could label him with and not have to think about anything else.
It's a slow process, but I think that writing intelligently and calmly to the antis helps accomplish that first step. It makes them realize that we're not foaming at the mouth overall-wearing fat guys all just dying for our chance to blow someone away with one of our two hundred guns. And hopefully it helps remind us that not every anti out there is some quivering liberal who's afraid of his own shadow and wants to lock us away.
It's not going to change with my letter, of course. But maybe one day one of these authors says to some rabid anti, "Well, I know a lot of them are like that, but I've actually gotten a lot of really intelligent well-reasoned letters from them..." Then maybe he sees a news story about someone saving someone else with a firearm and thinks back to all of those rational, calm letters he's seen and thinks, "Gosh, maybe that wasn't just some cowboy looking to blow someone away. Maybe that really was just someone doing what they had to to protect someone."
I also always bring up my girlfriend and how I want her to be able to protect herself. I think the idea of a small woman being able to realistically defend herself from a large man intent on attacking her is a very compelling argument. I don't know who couldn't cheer for a gal blowing away a would-be rapist.
Finally, I've been closing with an offer to come along for some safe, fun shooting any time and saying I'll buy the ammo. Deep down inside everyone wants to shoot, don't they?
I don't mean to come off preachy. I've really been affected by those on here who write effectively and intelligently and just wanted to say thanks and that you've got one more guy doing his best to do the same.
)
