Meetup
I’m going to the Blog Meetup here in Austin tonight. I’m a little nervous because upon reading the blogs of the others hwo have RSVP’d, looks like they are all extreme Bush-bashers and active participants in anti-war protests. I really don’t want tonight to turn into a big political discussion.
I’m not pro-war, but I’m definitely not anti-war either. Like hub explained to the three year old, sometimes there are things we don’t want to do, but we have to do them anyway. I don’t know exactly why we have to go after Saddam Hussein right now; seems like we’d be better of finishing the hunt for Bin Laden and taking care of his sorry ass before we declare war with Iraq, but all American presidents seem to think it’s cool to take on more than one major project at once. Not just this one.
I was raised that you may have disagreements within your family, but they stay within the family, and even if you’re in the midst of a mortal battle with a family member, you still show a united front to someone who’s not a family member. This may not be the most enlightened way of doing things in the world, but it’s mine.
Anyway, I hate being outnumbered by people with such different viewpoints at a social event, especially if they all start in on me because I think differently. It makes me really uncomfortable. I hope the conversation doesn’t get any more heated than Movable Type vs. Blogger.
February 19th, 2003 at 5:42 pm
Don’t worry, I’ll back ya up! I’m on the fence pro/anti-war… I think I see both sides, but I also think it’s inevitable (and I have yet to hear better options… sorry folks, let’s talk to Sadaam hasn’t worked for decades).
Truthfully, I think I, along with just about nearly every other American, don’t have even one drop of the facts that Bush, et. al. have about this situation, so I’d defer to their judgement on this (since our system of government gave them the right to decide) and don’t intend to value what I consider uninformed opinions.
I’m also very empathetic to those poor young men and women who are risking their lives right now and whose families might view protests and anti-war talk as lack of support for fellow Americans, so I’m with you on the unified front.
We have a system of government in place that put our current leaders in power. If you don’t like your leader and don’t trust the system, rally around changing THAT, first, I say. Otherwise, as long as you are benefiting from your government (police, roads, safety), then work within its confines to make change, or leave it. (yeah, I know, “love it or leave it” argument is dumb… whatever)
Regardless, I don’t think most these people are as violently interested in debating these things as their blogs might indicate… it really stays on-topic for blogs even when it broaches politics (ex. how do blogs help people organize around political movement?)
I’d be more afraid of the geek talk, myself (and I can’t wait to gossip over TiVo stuff ;))