Hello, Mr. Gustafson -
I'm really not sure if we're on the same page here. You seem to be
disagreeing with me, but then again, what you're saying doesn't seem
to have a lot to do with what I said in the first place. You mention
me by name several times, so I'm assuming you're talking to me - or at
least about me - but it's confusing to me.
<snipped>
> I was also intrigued by what Mark suggested as a means
> of protest. His option if we were against the jail
> house ball was to "Stay home with your families...
> listening to your children, speaking to them of
> values... Strengthen your friendships, listen to your
> friend, support them." As a Middler we don't act like
> that in protest of something. That is just how we try
> to live every day.
This makes it pretty clear to me that you either weren't paying
attention to, or didn't understand, my post. Either way, you could
hardly have misrepresented my point more completely than this. Perhaps
your stated concerns about my health, which of course I have no reason
to doubt were anything but sincere, compelled you to compose a hastier
reply than you might otherwise have written.
What you're claiming I said is exactly the opposite of what I in fact
did say. I never suggested that those who were thinking of
*protesting* the event stay home and devote the evening to
strengthening their values. I never said that people should *protest*
anything by staying home and sharpening up their values. What sort of
a protest would that be, anyway? What I said was that if those who
were thinking of *attending* the event truly cared about the charities
which were being funded by the event, they should consider just
mailing them a donation and staying home to practice and strengthen
their family and societal values. You not only completely missed my
point, you seem to have somehow reversed it 180 degrees.
You refer to yourself as a "Middler", and compare your way of thinking
to that of "Leftists", Rightists", "Liberals", and "Conservatives".
Most of your points seem to be based on an assumption that everyone
fits into some broad category or another, and that the validity of
their position and of their motivations is dependent upon what
category they have chosen for themselves. You've chosen to label
yourself a "Middler", and seem to think that being a Middler somehow
elevates you from the sort of mundane logical inconsistencies that
muddy the arguments of those who choose to belong to other categories.
In fact, I think that if anything you're demonstrating that the more
one categorizes people, both themselves and others, the less they
understand of the issues at hand.
Perhaps I'm misjudging you, because I'm not a regular reader of the
list these days and I haven't seen many of your posts. If that's the
case, I apologize. But in this particular instance, I think you missed
my point pretty badly. And frankly I am a little put off by your
apparent assumption that because I find this wierd jailhouse theme
party business to be highly offensive, I'm a liberal mirror image of
the Jesse Helms brigade. As far as I know, we've never met. You don't
know anything about me other than the position I took on this one
issue, and I'd prefer you not use my position on this matter to make
an example about the motivations of any of your cookie-cutter
categories. And if you do decide to take issue with my position,
please do not misrepresent it. Fair enough?
Thanks.
Regards,
Mark Holtz
Kea'au, Hawaii
Formerly of Downtown Minneapolis
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