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This is the second or third time I have seen OpEdNews people go shrill and off-topic in response to an article from a member of congress. http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_john_con_071205_john_conyers_3a_settin.htm
Before I get all sorts of responses telling me that you have the right to talk to them anyway you want, and they are just people and all of that nonsense, let me set you guys straight on something.
When Conyers or other members of congress come here and submit an article, it is an immense opportunity to dialogue with them. I have no problem with any of you expressing that you are disappointed with them. But there is a way to do it. That is, of course, if you want them to keep coming here and talking to us and want to continue to have an opportunity to influence them. I may be wrong about that.
If you all want them to go away and never come back, keep on reacting like you have been doing. If everytime I wrote an article, all I got in return was a litany of shrill responses many of which had nothing to do with what I wrote, I would never come back here. You all remind me of John Bolton at the UN. We send someone to the UN and have diplomats at least supposedly to work things out with people whom we have disagreements with. If we send a diplomat to a country that we have serious problems with, and they use the opportunity to pontificate and ramble on about everything that we think makes them bad, how many disagreements do you think would end positively?
The guy was discussing a particular piece of legislation and how it had been misrepresented. Many of the responses didnt deal with the legislation he was talking about at all. Right off the bat, if I were Conyers, I would be thinking, what is wrong with these people? I really dont care if you guys have all sorts of other issues with him. You can get all of that in. At least first address what the guy is talking about, OK? That is #1. #2, if you think he is wrong about not addressing impeachment, you can get that in without being an arse and you can do it in a way that is persuasive without being a total turn off. I want you folks to look at your responses again and think about how many times you have seen disagreements end positively after someone talks to someone the way you all talked to Conyers.
Again, if you are all happy chasing away any congresspeople who come here, please, by all means, continue doing exactly what you have been doing and ignore this diary. On the other hand, if you actually want to make an attempt to change the persons mind and get them to do something you want to do, we need a major change in approach.
