No Apologies

I knew when I first started typing this blog that I was going to see a lot of hate directed at my views. After all, mccookgazette.com serves a very conservative-minded area. There are Democrats in this area, but most tend to be pretty moderate. With that in mind I still forged aheas to give my impressions on what was going on in the world and not only through my eyes, but through a liberals. For the last twenty years or so, liberal has been a bad word, right up there with the f-bomb. It got so bad in the 90s that liberals were only referred to as the f-word.

Then an interesting thing happened. This country then went through eight years of conservatism run amok. I'm sure everyone remembers Congress holding a special midnight session to encourage the court system in Florida to keep a woman alive. It was such a joke that a senator from Tennessee that was a doctor watched a 45 minute video of Terry Schiavo and declared that she was not brain dead, even though scores of doctors that actually spent hours upon hours and days upon days observing her had declared her braindead. I had always been preached to by my conservative friends about one of conservatism's ideals was right to privacy and keeping the government out of our lives. This seemed like an awful big intrusion.

Then of course there was the failed attempt to pass an amendment to ban gay marriage horribly disguised as the Protection of Marriage Amendment. Apparently these folks have forgotten that the Constitution is about protecting rights not taking them away. This country has already put an Amendment that took away people's rights to drink, look how successful that was.

Suddenly, though, a man was elected president that every conservative in the book considers liberal. Well, he isn't. I have a great respect for Barack Obama, he is certainly closer to my ideals than George W. Bush could ever be, but his is no liberal. But I'm not going to attack him on here. He isn't even through his second 100 days, so I am going to do exactly what I did after Bush was elected, I am going to stay quiet and wait to pass judgement at a later date once Obama has had a chance to fully engrain himself into the presidency.

But back to my main point. As I have written on this blog for close to a year now, I have noticed something very odd. A lot of the people that post in the comment strands honestly and truly hate me. They don't hate me because they personally know me. They don't hate me because of some horrendous act I have done. No, they hate me because of what I believe in. What more they act as if I should apologize for what I believe in. They believe that they can attack me as much as they want to and then the instant that I respond to those attacks they act all pious (much like Bill O'Reilly does) and claim that I am the one attacking, they never make personal attacks.

Even those that for the most part keep it civil but still disagree with me will tend to go after my attacks but completely ignore an attack on me or those with my similar beliefs. It's an amazing thing.

I don't like attacking other people, but in the (and I hate using battle terms but it fits)war of words that can break out on these threads, I'm not going to sit back and let someone verbally attack everything I stand for, even threaten personal violence against me (by the way, had I wanted to I could have reported that user to mccookgazette.com and he could have been arrested, but I figured that the person was just getting a little heated and had we actually come person to person on the streets of McCook, nothing would have happened) without pointing out the holes in their arguments. The flamers on the other hand (for those unfamiliar with what a flamer is, it is person who gets on blog threads to basically try to goad people into a war of words, they will usually be very immature in the words they choose and call anyone who doesn't agree with them every name in the book just to get a rise) I actually do get a kick out of flaming them from time to time. Those posters really don't bother me all that much.

But the thing that amazes me most with a lot of the posters is the rampant hypocrisy that flows readily. They will claim to be good christians then cheer on torture. There really are no two ways about it, no matter what the reason is, if you think torture is a good thing, you have pretty much hung up your morales and to question anyone else's morals at that point is laughable at best.

My profession has also been violently attacked. But it isn't the experts that are attacking. I'm sorry but just because you went to public school and had children go through does not make you an expert on what actually happens in a classroom. Just like I'm not an expert in small business. I've been in plenty but that does not make me an expert in what it takes to run that business on a day in and day out basis. One poster, after I called her on not being an expert on education, tried to point out that because I am not in the military or have never been tortured or performed torture than I am not an expert on torture. That is very true, but torture and education are two very different things. With education you have people that have no idea what happens in a classroom or school trying to convince other people they no exactly what happens. The falsehoods that have been spread on this blog and, more directly, by Sam Eldridge really do show they have not one clue what happens on a day by day basis in education. They take a few bad apple teachers and try to prove that is system wide. With torture, though, it's not about being an expert. Most everyone will agree that if you cause physical pain to a prisoner or detainee while trying to gan information that it IS torture. It is a globally accepted truth. The United States even has laws against it.

As far as religion goes, I try to stay away from it, because I am not a religious man. I prescribe to Buddhism and that's my choice. But when I see people using religion as a crutch to spew hatred, I have to speak up. We have, in this country a freedom of religion. We also have an implied freedom from religion. I grew up a Southern Baptist and a Methodist and while I don't remember a lot of the teachings I heard every Sunday there are a few that stick out in my mind. One of the most prevalent is that only God can determine whether someone is going to hell or not. So when I hear this people shouting, "You're going to hell ..." I cringe because they have obviously forgotten that very important part.

I don't hate anyone. I may get angry at people, but I never hate. I was raised not to hate. I don't hate Sam because he took it upon himself to completely rake my profession over the coals with no proof and no facts, just what he believed. I am mad that he would honestly come on here and outright lie about something he knows little about. I don't respect him for that either, but I don't hate the man.

I don't hate those individuals who cry foul everytime someone takes offense as being racist something they have said and then claim that someone else is racist because they feel they are more qualified for a position because of who and what they are. I don't even get mad at them. I just typically smile and nod.

I don't hate anyone who threatens everything that I hold dear to me, my ideals, my faith, my beliefs and then they become indignant when someone else does the same to them.

It has been asked many times on here why I don't attack any Democrats or liberals. The obvious answer is why should I. The name of my blog is "Views from the Other Side". I don't typically have issues with Democrats or liberals becasue they mostly believe in what I believe in. So why should I criticize anyone on the left. Honestly I really haven't had anything to criticize that the left has done, except that it appears they are going to let the war criminals, Bushco, go scott free. I don't like that. I don't care if the man is the highest ranking official in the country, if he commits a crime he should be accountable for it. Bill Clinton was impeached because he lied to a grand jury about an affair he had. No one died for this lie, our country wasn't humiliated for his lie (we were however humiliated by the freak show that was the impeachment).

Bushco tortured enemy combatants which is in direct violation of not only the Geneva Convention but OUR OWN LAWS and they should be brought to justice. However I don't see the Obama Administration doing this and that's a shame.

To finish my little diatribe, I am not going to apologize for who I am or what I believe in.

I am not going to apologize if I see someone making a baseless claim and calling them for it.

I am not going to stand by while someone espouses absolute hatred for anyone that disagrees with them. I will call them on it. And if, in your eyes, that makes me no better than them, don't expect an apology.

I'm sure, if not in a comment on this thread then in his own blog, Sam will denigrate me for being an emotional or leftist religious nut. So be it. I know it helps him sleep better at night by attacking me, but I do find it curious that in his last four or five blogs he has gotten rather emotional about what he believes in and how much he thinks I am wrong.

I never really had an answer when he decided to term all those on the left as emotionals. Well Sam, I have that response for you. If whole-heartedly staying true to my beliefs makes me emotional, than I'm guilty as charged. If I get emotionally charged defending my positions to someone that doesn't base his facts on reality (yes education) than I am an emotional.

Hi, My name is Michael Hendricks and I am emotional and I am proud. Sam, its okay to be an emotional. From one outed emotional to a closeted emotional. It's okay to be emotional about your beliefs. It doesn't make you any less of a man.

No apologies.