>From Dave,
... > Jojo has strong Christian beliefs that we all should respect. I am > sure there are other religions represented here that should be > equally treated. Just to be clear, it is not Jojo's religious beliefs that I am challenging. It is Jojo's inappropriate posting behavior that needs to be addressed. Some time ago I realized I that had had enough of Mr. Jaro's philosophy on life. As others have already done I chose to route his email into my kill file. Nevertheless, I continue to get snippets of diatribes when others repeat portions of his text within their own replies. The latest conversation, this one concerning what I presume are hidden meanings behind the word "Allah", as discussed between Mr. Jaro and Mr. Lomax, seem to indicate that at least from Mr. Jaro's perspective there exists some unsavory meanings attributed to the name "Allah". However… I suspect the true meaning of "Allah" has very little to do with what is really upsetting Jojo, but I'll get to that later. After pondering Lomax’s post I found myself wondering what would happen if I decided to perform some intentionally creative research of my own on the name of "Jojo". Eventually, I came up with a couple of definitions that suited my objectives of intentionally and with pre-thought, implying that the name "Jojo" could possibly mean something less respectful than that of a human being. It seems to me that if Jojo felt justified in casting doubt over the meanings of the word "Allah", then surely the name of "Jojo" ought to be fair game as well. I proceeded to assemble a collection of "definitions" that I made sure anyone could readily go out to the Internet and confirm, as well as challenge. The point being, however creative or misleading my personal interpretations might have been, I didn't pluck the meanings & definitions completely out of my own ass. My exercise in name-definitions was to show how easy it is to assemble and misconstrue a collection of meanings attributed to a name. It was also to show how idiotic it can be to come up with a ridiculous bunch of misleading definitions. I suspected Jojo would not let my exercise of stand without comment so I made sure to watch for his response. Indeed, I found his response. It was of little concern to me that I was called me a "retard". (I've been called worse, as has Mr. Obama.) What interested me was the fact that Mr. Jaro did not seem to pick up on the fact that my exercise was an attempt to show how moronic it is for anyone to assemble a bunch of definitions that had been blithely pulled out of the Internet in order to support a personally contrived meaning behind the name of "Jojo". This may be a subtle point that some on this list may not have gotten, so let me once again clarify my objective. I attempted to show how idiotic it would be for anyone to assemble a mish-mash of definitions in an effort to support one's personal pet definitions. I was deliberately played the role of an idiot in my previous reply to Mr. Lomax. It was intentional. But instead of Mr. Jaro picking up on my intentions, Jojo needed to personify me personally AS an idiot, or to use his definition: a "retard"... It would seem that from Mr. Jaro's POV a "retard", meaning me, doesn’t realize the fact that he has assembled a misconstrued mish-mash of misleading meanings. Ok... such a perception tells me a lot of things. Since I suspect it's likely that Mr. Jaro will read this post I would like to make a couple of comments that I hope Mr. Jaro's will be able to hear. It comes from my heart: Jojo, I do not question your intellectual development. It's possible your intellect and intelligence is much more developed than mine. It is your emotional development that I'm very concerned about. The last person I ran across who used the derogatory term "retard" to label another person was someone who was under the age of 10. I assume you are a lot older than a 10 year old... (Well, I assume that's is the case, but who really knows.) With that said, much of your posting behavior indicates someone who appears to be emotionally arrested at an age under that of a 10 year old. That is a tragedy. It also angers me deeply because it is so unfair to you. It makes me suspect there were others in your life, probably certain "caretakers" who I suspect screwed with your emotional development during your upbringing. Perhaps some of them got off by diminishing your sense of self-image by constantly making you feel worthless. That kind of damage has now left you behaving in incredibly defensive ways as revealed in some of your posting behavior. You show such defensiveness such as by posting hollow bravado, and warnings not to cross certain lines of behavior, and by attempting to label me a "retard". Such learned behaviors appear to be the only way you've learned how to defend yourself or to get back at others you feel are hurting you. Jojo, it is clear to me that you are a person in a lot of pain, though you probably don’t realize how much pain you are in. As God is my witness you do not deserve to be in such pain. But you have to want to do something about the pain you are in. It has to be your choice to leave it behind. Under the circumstances the best recommendation I could give would be to find a men's group, a gathering of males, of peers that would finally give you the feedback you didn't get earlier in your life. It is your right to get what you didn't get earlier in your life. Considering your religious affiliations I would hope your church would be able to point you in the direction of a "Christian" oriented men's group. I suspect you would probably feel more comfortable participating in a religiously affiliated men’s group, but that’s just a guess on my part. Just so you know, I participated in a couple of men's groups for many years. It was one of the best things I did for myself. I wish the same for you. Go in peace. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
