In the interest of trying to do my part to heal the Red-Blue rift in this country - after all, things are bad enough with the daily war dead and violence in Iraq, the $3 per gallon price for gasoline, the increasing poverty rate, Hurricane Katrina, the continued offshoring of jobs, etc. - I have lately been responding to right-wingers who email me, to start some kind of a dialogue, rather than just ignore them. The results are, er….sketchy, to say the least.
Here is my latest attempt at dialoging with a rightwinger who runs a GOP t-shirt Web business and I suspect does a Democratic one as a Rovian dirty trick [Note: When I email I don’t have time to concern myself with punctuation or capitalization as I do when I write a column.]:
Andrew the rightwinger: Jackson... Is this your website? [The email includes a copy of my site saying something he wrote at the top about me sending out a supposedly unsubstantiated article about Bush's recent cussing tirades and making an ass of myself for doing so. It sounds like it was written by a teen-ager, or even a grade-schooler.]
Jackson: It's bush who makes the ass out of himself. he cusses all the time including in public. there are many stories on that...that article is true......
Andrew the rightwinger: "The article is true"... Here is were you can prove yourself to be a real genius.... Validate those quotes specific article with a source reference... Call the author if you need to...I don't believe it's true... You say it is... The burden of proof is on you. YOU SENT THE ARTICLE OUT! If you cant put up, you are quieted by your own stupidity. I don't think your really interested in being able to substantiated the articles you send out, but rather that gullible people are influenced by them... The office vote tally here is 10-0 you are a gullible man who is a putz for the left... An non thinking boob who is a easily influenced by hearsay. But in your mind the article is true because you believe it... We want to help out out here so here is some advice... What you believe has no bearing on the truth what so ever. I tried to contact the author to help you see how gullible you are, but that web site provides NO contact information. Are you ready to admit you sent the article out wanting to believe is was true rather than knowing it was true?
Jackson: No i know its true. God himself spoke to me - the same God who told bush to run for president and told pat robertson to call for the assassination of another country's elected leader - and said,"Jackson this article is true. Spread it far and wide to the masses." So that's what I did. I don't disobey my Lord and Savior. And you should not question the LORD'S WORK!
Andrew the rightwinger: Jackson, You have shown yourself to be what you are... Unable to engage in ration conersation Please taken me off your mailing list.
Jackson: Youre right - I am unable to "engage in ration conersation" - i don't even know what that phrase means.
Andrew the rightwinger: You can pick up on spelling mistakes... Good, but you're less intelligent when it comes to critical thinking... You have proven that. Your website says your 40 years old...one would never know that....Let your next response be your last.
Jackson: I thought you were 15 based on your response. The initial part allegedly put on my web site sounds like something a teenager would write and one dumber than Dumbya was when he was 15.
Andrew the rightwinger: Jackson, I asked you to take me off your list. Additional emails will be considered harassment. Please not I live in Washington state and the anti-spam laws we have... Continuing so send mail after this request would put you in violation of this law.
So, it goes. I try to start a dialogue with someone who supports a political party that – in one of many hypocrises - claims to despise lawyers and regulations, and end up getting threatened with legal action.
No one said trying to break through this Great Divide would be easy. As the song says, we shall overcome someday...
Jackson Thoreau is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. His latest book, "Born to Cheat: How Bush, Cheney, Rove & Co. Broke the Rules, From the Sandlot to the White House," debuted at the Take Back America conference in June 2007. More info on the book is at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/cheat.html
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