Sharman’s column has no place in the Star-Exponent
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Jeanne Grimes
Published: November 2, 2008
No one enjoys a rousing debate more than I do during an election year. It is great fun to read the commentary in newspapers and magazines, watch the political pundits on TV and examine the spirited debates of candidates.
However, there are some opinions and commentaries that cross a line, not necessarily because of politics, but because of common decency. J. Michael Sharman’s column Oct. 22, “Power must be used properly,” has crossed that line.
Mr. Sharman has created a separatist table with his writings. Anyone who is anti-gay, anti-Planned Parenthood, anti-liberal, anti-gun restriction, anti-Democratic Party, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim are welcome to sit at his table.
I recognize that Mr. Sharman is devoted to his beliefs. After all, the Star-Exponent provides him with a forum every week. I can only assume that the Star-Exponent must support his views, but to compare Planned Parenthood, Sen. Obama, and the Klu Klux Klan? To insist that Planned Parenthood and Sen. Obama are associated with killing or supporting legislation that makes them both worse than the KKK?
One cannot believe that his poignant story of growing up in a racist community did not have more of an impact than to create hypocrisy.
I defend the right to speak in our democratic society. I defend Mr. Sharman’s right to his opinion. I do not defend the Star-Exponent’s actions in allowing the newspaper to become his bully pulpit.
You have chosen to support an independent columnist who espouses a divided America in such a way that it offends the sensibility of its citizens and strikes to the very core of our being. There is no place for hate politics in your newspaper.
Jeanne Grimes
Culpeper
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( Repub ) on November 07, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Extraordinary Woman, your reply was so well stated it should be published by the CSE. It not only addressed 2 very dividing issues but it shows that we can all still be compassionate even if we believe others have made the wrong choice(s) in life and we disagree with the path they chose. We agree on many things.
Good night to you too
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 07, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Thank you Repub.
I truly respect your deep thoughts shared.
I’ve tried to be open-minded through the years. Truly. I worked with a gay (2 males), couple for 6 years, in very close quarters back in the early 90’s. I truly cared for the both of them. They both came to me with their arguments with each other, and I listened on a personal level, not a biblical counsel type level. And to be open about the relationship to you and all, what was the saddest to me, was watching their physical decay. The daily incontinence, infections, constant health issues, not to mention their morning fights with each other,
Because I knew what a healthy marriage was, and the Biblical perspective of what God intended for our own good, it was even harder to watch their decay vs. another young strugling straight couple just learning how to dwell with one another.
And believe it or not, I have a dear young girl friend from high school, that ended up having 5 abortions before her 20th birthday. I can’t tell you what a wreck she was and the father was the same young fellow and father of them all. They did marry, had about 2 kids, and about killed each other getting a divorce 10 years later.
I’m not a sheltered old lady who is without compassion. My heart breaks for my dear friend today. And she knows I love her, and she knows how I felt about the very firt abortion. (I would not go with her for it.) And she is forgiven, and doing wonderful today. With 5 very healthy and happy children. But when we are alone and talking together, she wonders about the other 5. She misses them, and wished she knew how God intended them to grow up and what they’d be like today.
This is why I object to these choices. Not just because my Heavenly Father said not to, but because I’ve seen first hand why He said not to.
Good night.
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Posted by ( Repub ) on November 07, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Ordinary Woman, it is impossible to be disagreeable with someone that can articulate their beliefs with such honesty. I wish more people truly understood the power of their words. It is with pleasure that I read your comment because you have beliefs that are based on something that is truly good even if I don’t agree with everything you say. I have always enjoyed questioning everything in life including my own opinions. The only thing I am really sure of is the human species still has a long way to go, maybe it’s the journey and not the destination that makes us better in the eyes of God. Since I enjoy your honesty I am going to tell you a secret, sometimes I respond to people on these forums with a touch of harmless sarcasm. My intent is not to convert them from what they believe but to try to get them to view something from a perspective just a little bit different from where they have entrenched their thoughts. I had someone say something to me many years ago when I was going through a rough period in my life and questioning my purpose in life, “Change comes from within” 4 simple words that carry more weight than a mountain. If I was to make myself a better person or wanted to change things around me, I had to change the way I saw everything from my own point of view, I had to put myself in the shoes of everybody else and try to understand why they saw the world from their point of view. It brings order to the chaos, and it opens up a whole new world. Things are not really black and white, and nothing is as simple as it seems, and in all of life’s complexity that is where l find God. I don’t know why people from the Middle East want to kill innocent woman and children, both ours and Thiers, but I do want to know how and why they have come to the point where their hearts are filled with so much hatred that they would believe it is something good to kill innocent people. In order to change the world around us into a better place we have to change from within our own hearts, we have to become tolerant, we have to try to understand things that we don’t like and behave in a civil manner when we don’t agree. We have to understand that we will never win everybody over to one side or belief because it’s not in our nature to agree on everything. We will never change the things that we do not like in this world if we are incapable of sitting down and having a simple conversation. Extraordinary Woman, I would gladly step in front of you to shield you from the arrows and anything else thrown your way. Have a wonderful day!
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 07, 2008 at 10:44 am
Repub, you are the most sensible person to talk with on here. You don’t seem to be clouded with non-factual bias and previous dislikes because of beliefs.
Definitions are good, thanks for digging and sharing. I call myself, a conservative Christian, as that is what I’m called by most people and it’s easier for people to get a stance on where my basic beliefs are. But I truly don’t live by any either definition.
I view everything in my life, to which I should make decisions by, from a Biblical viewpoint. Sometimes it would appear conservative and sometimes liberal. That’s probably why we did not have a real base-party choice when McCain became the candidate.
No, your definitions are not scary, and you don’t have to wait on arrows. They really just don’t apply much in light of what is going on. I can handle leadership from either party, if I know they are not liars or corrupt. But as both liberals and conservatives can plainly see for themselves, that is not what we have in Washington, in either house. If nothing else is learned by the majority, I hope they’ve learned about their candidates through the bailout and the related corruption. And we’ll see when it comes to our new President. But his evasiveness so far and stance on abortion, is what kept him from a landslide victory.
That’s what has been real hard on people of honesty in this election process. For instance, I’ve heard, but not verified, that more people voted in Richmond than there could have possibly been eligible to vote. Estimated numbers are in the upper thousands. Mix that with all the other early registered and early voting people, and we could very well be dealing with a stolen election. But that is just a question/theory at this point, but there has been plenty of evidence so far in previous weeks (ACORN) to warrant a closer investigation.
I feel we’ve been pretty tolerant. And we can only be pushed so far into that attitude. There’s no reason to protect a group of people who simply want to have sex differently than the traditionally married male and female couple, and then desire to call it a “marriage”. There’s no wiggle room, but at the same time, we don’t go around marching and hurting them either. (There will always be a few fringes as an exception, and they are not tolerated by us either.) If they want to act like their married, then they should get a new name for what they’re doing, and use that, just like they did with the word “gay”. But stop hijacking what is known as marriage from history through today. And don’t tell me they don’t have rights, we know they do through their civil unions and so forth.
There’s also no reason for us to tolerate the murder of unborn children. But that also doesn’t mean people should blow up their clinics either. Nor should I have to help pay for them with tax dollars. Again, it’s a choice whether or not to be pregnant in the first place as represented by the abortion statistics. Why should I have to pay for others bad choices in life? I don’t mind helping financially with a baby as we’ve done for years, even to the point of adoption, (which my parents did after having 9 of their own children); but I don’t want to pay through taxes to have them murdered.
I understand if we differ, but you watch which of the two of us will really get the pooh thrown at them. I’ll betcha?
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Posted by ( Repub ) on November 06, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Copper, you should have checked a site called ERICPAC before you cast your vote for Cantor apparently he has a lot of rich wing nuts in Beverly hills that he hangs out with every year. That’s one of the many other states he hangs out in getting contributions when you don’t see him in the 7th district at election time, I hope you didn’t think the 7th district paid for the millions of Eric Cantor signs, mailings, etc. He gets a lot of donations from Isreal too because he likes to stay there when he is not in Aspen or La. I never knew the 7th district was so big? His website has everything you need to know about him. I hope he gets a lot more money for the next election because the vote was 2 to 1 but thats not the ratio of money spent.
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Posted by ( Repub ) on November 05, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Actual definitions of the word Conservative: resistant to change
•having social or political views favoring conservatism
•cautious: avoiding excess; “a conservative estimate”
•a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas.
Now actual definitions of a liberal:
•broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; “a broad political stance”; “generous and broad sympathies”; “a liberal newspaper”; “tolerant ...
•having political or social views favoring reform and progress
•tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
•a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
•a person who favors an economic theory of self-regulating markets.
Liberals have a political philosophy of progress, reform, protection of civil liberties, and believe in a free market.They are tolerant and not bound by the past.
Scary isn’t it? (this is called sarcasm)
Let the arrows fly, because I am sure that I am the new target for the neoconservatives that lurk in the shadows but Here’s my question to all of you conservatives. Is being a hardline conservative and against all liberal ideas/thought the best choice to make for the future? or is it blasphemy to actually be cautious and still believe that progress and the protection of civil liberties is worth our attention?
P.S. you can hurl insults and a truckload of pooh at me if it pleases you but it dosn’t really address the question(s) above. Can we just stick to your honest opinions on this?
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Posted by ( El Debibble ) on November 05, 2008 at 3:17 pm
A major part of McCain’s battle was with the nastiness from the RNC dirty tricks groups, idiots passing emails they never bothered to verify and certain “Christians” and their special brand of intolerance.
Yeah, yeah “feelings”, no facts. Left wing liberals didn’t beat McCain. Bible thumping bigots who were voting for the lesser evil is what beat him. You people will drag down any candidate who can make a positive differnec by continuing to carry on just thet way you have during this election. The majority were sick of it and when added to W and the economy McCain never had a chance. You didn’t vote FOR anybody.
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Posted by ( copper ) on November 05, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Unfortunately McCain had the deck stacked against him all the way. There are more left wing liberals in this Country than Conservative Christians, the numbers don’t lie. With the media on his side, Hollywood nut jobs donating money and 600 million in private dollars donated, and the support of racists and terrorists Obama should have won by a larger margin. This only proves the moral decay of our Country is real!
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Posted by ( Ciudadano ) on November 05, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I agree with the writer that Sharman is a separatist, I also throw in a fanatic that do not respect anyone that not has his same opinion of fanaticism. In the other hand he has the right to express himself and I respect that. My last point is that as he has his right to write I have my right to NOT read his negative, fanatical rhetoric. I am changing newspapers.
Edwin MORALES
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Posted by ( OrdinaryWoman ) on November 05, 2008 at 1:24 pm
You never cease to amaze me how you can turn something nice you were saying about McCain, into a reason why the election might have turned out differently.
You must be more sensible than to think that McCain might have won if we “conservative Christians” were nicer??
Even Obama supporters know that McCain had an uphill battle as a republican to win anything, and it was a sure loss when the reality of our economy finally dawned on everyone and not just the economist who have been predicting it for years now.
But you go on voting or chastising people, based on feelings. That’s really going to help.
We all just need to get behind our new President and uphold him in prayer, as he is facing the toughest time ever to be running this country.
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