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re: What I was promoting
Tom Brosz — (archived)

Your cause sounds reasonable to me. Abstinence-only is not enough information IMO, not when doing the wrong thing can kill you nowadays. And with an opt-out option, I'm not sure what else parents could ask for. Unfortunately, around here abstinence is often lucky to show up anywhere in the mix at all, and a few programs are on the far end of the pendulum swing. I don't think we need teens to learn about bondage methods.

Good for you, for working toward an objective in your community! I'm sorry that I was harsh. In view of what you've told me, you didn't deserve that particular criticism. :)

You're giving me way too much credit. I support these things, but generally the maximum extent I go to is voting for them, talking them up to friends, and maybe sticking a sign in my yard or a sticker on my bumper. I don't do nearly the hard work you do.

I maintain that abandoning a worthy cause to the extremists in the group -- every group has them -- unnecessarily polarizes a potential benefit. I've said this before, and I wish I knew where I originally heard this so I could credit it, because it's a cornerstone of cooperative power-sharing everywhere: If you're comfortable with everyone at the table, then your coalition is too small. That means joining people you don't like, or who make you nervous, and it also means not quitting if one part of the group gets loud and obnoxious. If a cause or objective is worthy on its own, it's incumbent on everyone who values it to work toward it in some way, and to annoy the hell out of people in the group whose interpretations are in active conflict with the objectives of the group as a whole.

I think I discussed the virtues of consensus elsewhere when free people are dealing with each other. It is not that hard to come up with solutions that, if they are not ideal for everyone, at least everyone can live with. Like picking a pizza that everyone in the room will eat.

Interestingly, Arnold apparently thinks this way, and it makes some conservatives uncomfortable. His transition team and advisors are from everywhere on the political spectrum you can think of.

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