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Post by breakingfree on Apr 5, 2010 9:12:51 GMT -5
BF, seems to me you ARE expressing an opinion.... I feel soooo misunderstood. (needing a font for irony here). I did not ever say that we have to walk on eggshells, in fact my post was opposed to that. I said "There is a fine line between "political correctness" and censorship. People also need to feel free to post about difficult and painful topics. Sometimes your idea of what is offensive or uncomfortable is different from mine. So be it. We just have to work that out AND do so in a way that is kind, humane and rational." I.e. common sense. Respect. etc. I also said, it is inevitable that at some point someone will be offended. That in no way implies that you should not speak your truth. My point was that if you are offended you should communicate that to me and from there we engage in dialogue or one of us walk away. To me, it is only inappropriate if it degenerates into an on-line shouting match. And I said that I believe that is a rare occurence. It seems to me the only thing that got picked out was that I said that I was not referring to this recent occurence and I did not want anyone to be offended by what I said. I think that is a reasonably polite thing to say when some feelings are bruised and raw. Even if you have an opinion that you consider a hard truth, there may be ways to express it that are kind. Sometimes we do need to push or challenge each other, bring a new perspective to light, but it's not easy to always know the exactly right response. We do need to keep in mind that we have limited information about someone else's situation and that we are reading it from the context of our own experience. Benefit of the doubt goes a long way. Being willing to step back goes a long way. I believe that much of the time, preserving the relationship is worth more than being right. I hope this helps clarify that I was not suggesting that we should not express ourselves or be honest. Haha, that is funny! I guess I was expressing an opinion. BUT, it wasn't about someone's squalor. Suppose I should have clarified that. I should also clarify that I wasn't quoting you because I disagreed--in fact I agreed with much of what you said. I was using the "PLEASE..." statement to illustrate...well, you read it so no sense typing it again! The new chat policy appears to me to be fair. Now, let's all work together toward the common goal--to BREAK FREE of SQUALOR!!! Hugs to you all, BF
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