In an amazing example of grace under pressure, Lauren Valle, the victim of a viscious stomping by Rand Paul supporter Tim Profitt, responded to his request that she apologize to him
More below the fold.
In an article posted in Capitol Hill Blue (and picked up by Huffington Post), Ms. Valle's open letter to Tim Profitt states that she's probably not issuing the apology that Profitt was hoping for.
What she did say, however, is an amazing example of grace and class and should be a lesson to everyone both on the right and on the left of how you deal with an ugly conflict and prevent it from becomming even uglier.
A few choice items from the text of the letter:
I have been called a progressive, a liberal, a professional agitator. You have been called a conservative, a Republican, a member of the Tea Party movement. Fundamentally and most importantly, you and I are both human beings. We are also both American citizens. These two facts, to me, are far more meaningful than the multitude of labels that we carry. And if these two facts are true then it means we are on the same team.
and
You and I, as fellow citizens, and we, as a country, have a choice. Either we choose to continue the cycle of inflicting violence upon each other, screaming at each other, insulting each other and putting one another down or we and find a way to sit down and start listening to each other. We’ll see how far we get. We are all viciously and vociferously feeding a fire that will only burn us down together. We must reach inside ourselves and make space for each other. We must forgive each other. We must believe in our capacity for transformation. The moment we choose compassion and reconciliation is the moment that we will begin to move toward freedom. There is no other way.
Ms. Valle is a bigger human being than I could ever hope to be and probably more than most of us can hope to be-but that shouldn't stop us from trying.
The tea party people have shown themselves to be small and petty at the very least and dangerously violent at their worst. We know we are better than that but at times, it takes a reaction like Lauren Valle's to remind us of who we are and keep us moving in the right direction.
It's a very difficult thing for most of us to forgive actions like Tim Profitt's stomping of Valle several days ago but if she can do it, I'd like to hold myself to the same standard.
Lauren Valle has proven herself to be a voice of reason and an example of all of us to emulate in the wake of this ugly incident. As we move into the final stages of this election, let's remember her suffering and her response to it and try to use it as a guide to manage our own reactions as well.
Here's the entire text of her response:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/...
Wow! Rec Listed already! Thanks everyone
There's certainly a lot of interesting discussion about this and i'm really happy to see a lot of different opinions.
Someone posted a really interesting quip on another discussion board earlier today regarding the benefits of taking the high road. It went someting like this:
"Taking the high road puts you into a better aiming position for pissing on their heads."
or someting like that...