Padriag
Posts: 2633
Joined: 3/30/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: juliaoceania quote:
One lass here on CM refused to talk to me because I live in a "red state." I wasn't even sure what she was talking about until she explained it was about which way the electoral college voted last presidential election. To me that is still one of the dumbest excuses not to speak to a potential dom I've heard yet. It isn't stupid if she was the one that was expected to spend time there and/or live there if there was a spark. Some people do not want to live in conservative areas, I am one of them. It is stupid to judge an entire state based on the vote of the electoral college in one election which does not reflect either individuals in that state nor any particular area of the state. Its judging people based on the vote of the electoral college. You don't know what the area I live in is like, and neither did she, because neither of you have ever been here or lived here. To refuse to even speak to someone on that basis demonstrates a level of close-minded, judgemental attitude that I'm at a loss to call anything other than stupid. Such an attitude ignores who I am as a person, or for that matter the community I live in. It disregards all the good qualities I possess, the wonderful things I have to offer, purely on the basis of which state I happen to live in. It disregards and disrespects all the other good people who live here as well. Its writing off an entire state as being "bad people" based on a hugely uninformed opinion. Its tantamount to someone saying that because you are white and blond you must be a dumb rich bitch. Or saying that because you live in California you must be a drug addicted, lazy, hippy, surfer chick. Or someone saying that because I'm an atheist I must be an immoral person with no values, or better still (and this actually happened), one person assumed that because I'm an atheist I must therefore also be a satanist (which still leaves me scratching my head at how they made that leap). Such statements are ridiculous and have no basis in fact, they are irrational and wrong! You have a conservative republican as governor... does that make you red or blue? Does that make your community automatically republican or democrat? Does it in fact have anything to do with who you are or how you live or whether where you live is a nice place or not? Fact is, it doesn't. From someone who has in the past made statements about how important it is that we judge a person for who they are, and not by superficial things, I'm a bit surprised you'd try to defend such a stance. But that's fine if you want to be that shallow, as the lass I meantioned apparently is, that's your choice. And you'll miss out on knowing a pretty neat guy (if I do say so myself). As for living here, you'll remain ignorant of a wide range of things, like the local artist community, the fact that most of the people who live around the lake are not natives of this county or state; and in fact are mostly from California or Florida (apparently when people from CA want to relax, they come here!). That this county, like this state, is made up of a wide range of people from all races and walks of life... and to label it (or any other state) as being only one thing, is to completely misunderstand the people who live here. It does a disservice to those people, who are native americans, african americans, mexicans, koreans, vietnamese, east indian hindi (we even have a large budhist temple here which is open to the public), and a variety of other ethnic groups (including one crazy Irishman). Pretty cosmopolitan for a county with a population under 250,000... and amazingly we manage to get along, rednecks, republicans and democrats included. Besides which you can get the best BBQ on the east coast here. But gee... what's all that compared to being an icky red state... what was I thinking... the vote of the electoral college in a single election is far more important than all that other neat stuff... So like I said, pretty stupid to judge people that way. But then, call me crazy (I mean since I live in a red state I must be crazy to say this...) but I believe we ought to get to know a person before we judge them, and we ought to judge them for who they are, not where they live. But then its me an the unicorns, cause I must be a mythical creature. I mean, an athiest who apparently does have values and morals... why we all know that's just not possible. And since I live in a red state I must be one of those conservative bastards out to grind people in to poverty while amassing obsene amounts of wealth and stripping away every last vestige of human rights... right? On behalf of myself and my state... thanks for judging us, we really appreciate that. You can have CA with its smog, earthquakes, violence and drug problems. I'll just stay where I am with the low crime rate, terra firma that actually is, clean air, and lots of nice people who still open doors for each other and are generally pretty easy to get along with. Hey, we even have a local vineyard too! Can't imagine why so many Californians are moving here...
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Padriag A stern discipline pervades all nature, which is a little cruel so that it may be very kind - Edmund Spencer
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