Sorry guys. I need to write this.
In college, I had a close friend. We'll call him Todd. We were tight - in today's vernacular, he was 'my boy'. We roomed together the last two years of college. He was the best man at my wedding.
In college, he was a bit of a dittohead. I was always very liberal. He ended up being an accountant, I ended up with a degree in Biology and Envionmental Science.
The dittohead part at the time was funny - we argued about politics, he always lost (so much so people made fun of him for it), but I always thought it was a phase - that somehow he'd wake up one day and see the world as I did. Boy was I wrong.
After college, I left town to move to Arkansas to pursue my graduate degree. Thus began what my wife likes to call our 'years in the wilderness' - living in small towns in Western Arkansas and East Texas. Being from Pittsburgh, the culture shock of this was huge on both of us, as were the lessons we learned. I gradually became more liberal, as did my wife. I showed up here (at DK) about 2004. As life would have it, we moved back to Pittsburgh in 2005, after spending nearly a decade away.
I tried, and failed miserably, to keep in touch with Todd (he's always been awful at writing email). I'd get stories from other friends -
"he's working in the accounting firm where he had that internship in college"
"he was just made partner in that accounting firm"
Sounded like things were moving his way - it was all good news. Upon moving back, I looked him up. I wrote him two emails, called a couple times, with no response at all. Life got busy, years rolled by, and I never heard from him. While entering some GOTV data last night, out of the blue, I get this email:
Please watch the following video. No matter your party affiliation or view on abortion, I think you will find it disturbing. I encourage you all to do your own research of the points made in this video.
(Obama kills babies cause he's an Islamic fascist baby hating freak link removed)
So, at this point I'm livid. My friend has apparently gone as far right as I did left. I don't hear from him for 10 years, and this (THIS!) is what he sends me. Is he f'ing kidding? WTF? I immediately flash back to a promise I made to a friend in Arkansas that I wouldn't let hate speech like that stand. I write a pretty vicious email. Then my wife (as she always does) gives me some perspective, and has me strike a more conciliatory tone. I sent back this:
Todd,
I'd prefer that you not send me any further emails like this. We could not disagree more on this issue.
So, I think this is over, and my wife and I (who was about as close to Todd as I was in college), get into a 10 minute discussion of WTF happened to him. Then, I get this reply back:
Steve,
Ok, I'll respect that, but did you watch it? Do you really agree that it is
okay to let babies born alive die?
Now I'm pissed. At him. At myself. At history. That somebody I respected could go so far off his rocker. My wife talks me down again, and I agree at this point that ending the conversation is the right way to go. In my mind, I'm still trying to save a friendship that in reality has been dead for a decade, but I'm also pissed at this whole turn of events. I keep saying to myself "After 10 years, this is what he sends me? 10 years, and THIS is what I get from him?!?!?" I reply back:
Todd,
I did watch it, but since the tie to Obama was a complete lie (he does not support what that video talks about), the point was moot.
Unlike you, I lived in the deep south for close to a decade. I've seen what decades of Republican and conservative policies and belief can do to this country. I'd venture to say I'd completely disagree with you on any political issue you could name.
I'd kindly suggest you drop it.
So, I think this has to be it, then my wife suggests that maybe its worth trying to get together with him for dinner or something - try to smooth things out. OK, I say, but I tried that 3 years ago and he was non-responsive.
Then I get this:
Steve,
I'm not sure what's wrong with you, or how you believe someone as vile as Obama. What you believe is not God's will.
Todd
Ok, now instinct just takes over. My wife has gone to bed, so I calm myself down, for about a half hour. Then I just start writing. What comes out is this:
Todd,
Since you're so concerned with my beliefs, why don't I share some:
- I believe that Jesus was a community organizer.
- I believe we should never make decisions based on hate.
- I believe that a woman's body is her own.
- I believe fear is a powerful prayer in the wrong direction.
- I believe that you can't love your neighbor by finding reasons to hate them.
- I believe that supporting people who don't look, act, or talk like me is one of my core responsibilities as a citizen of this country.
- I believe that this is the only place on Earth where a half-black kid with the middle name Hussein could become leader of the country.
- I believe that people like you are the reason good colleges and universities get fewer and fewer grants to research the environmental and evolutionary questions that need answered.
- I believe stem cell research could have saved my grandfather.
- I believe that if you hate someone and what they stand for, that you should forgive them, turn the other shoulder, and walk away.
- I believe that my daughters deserve equal pay for equal work.
- I believe that if we "Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace." (Bill Hicks)
- Most of all, I believe that "When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
And I believe that Barack Obama is the right person at this moment of history. So take your hate and your lies and spew it at someone else. I've got to go work to make the world a better place for my children.
Steve
Then I finished my GOTV sheets.