Listen, buddy--

I'm handing back the same attitude I have been seeing. If you are shocked, I'm sorry. Not.

And as far as I am concerned, you can keep your precious opinion. It's all yours. And not mine.

Whenever there's a disagreement with conservative dogma or the suggestion that there is another way and that maybe someone else's feet get stepped on, OH MY GOD!!! POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!!! COMMUNISTS! SOCIALISTS!! MURDER!!! Call the cops! Have a seance and bring back the Founding Fathers to lambaste us all!

Or we can suggest that the poster is stupid, paranoid, superficial, or any assortment of other lovely alternatives. I'm fed up.

The plain fact is, I don't like how I feel when I come here anymore.

I'm surprised at such a superficial and shallow response from you, Mary Anne

Awww, didums get his feewings hurt? You expect me to bust my chops to reply to "More of the Same"? You're the one who posted a pop song. I'm sick of the preaching and the holier-than-thou crap and I'm sick of the "stupid-rotten-liberals-who-are-still-apparently-smart-enough-to-have-taken-over-the-whole-entire-country" line and I'm sick of random insults passed around by people who are not necessarily you to people who are not necessarily me and of the use of language that would have gotten me sent to Sister Ann Raymond's office in 15 seconds.

The fact is that people who have a mindset similar to the one you seem to be displaying think they know how other people should live.

The fact is that you don't have a clue about "mindsets" because you don't listen. Could it be that there are "mindsets" among those you agree with, or are only those who disagree with you incapable of depth and complexity? You guys talk and talk and admire each other's fine plumage.

The fact is, I suggested that based on MY experience, mass transit is a good thing and that you don't have to be a communist to recognize that. You're just upset because someone had the nerve to suggest that your precious car might be more of a problem than you think. Feeling backed against the wall by all those foreigners from California, are we? Get up and go run for township supervisor or whatever you have out there, and quit whining that liberals are out to get you. I'm just trying to stay alive here in the Bible Belt, bucko.

And I STILL say that, if people want to pray at a public meeting, it's OK as long as they don't make me join in or pay the minister out of my pocket. This is a constant irritant for me, but I don't spend my free time ranting about how many times I heard "Silent Night" on the radio last December or how many times I've seen "Mythical Being Bless America" in windows and bumpers since last September, because I understand people's need for comfort and joy. And I HATE filters, but I actively lobbied for them in the children's department in spite of the fact that they don't work because I understand people's fears and it gives me negotiating power to use to provide some unfiltered access to adult patrons. But this is all because I'm not willing to reduce other people to the level of a group "mindset". For someone so preoccupied with individualism, you seem to have lost track of its essence: that even your opponents are individuals.

Understand me for once: what you consider your God-given right may actually be infringing on my space, my health, my future. I insist on placing that discussion on the table, phrased that way, and if you want to think of it as me telling you how to live, OH WELL. Better that than you telling me to drop dead.

Love, kisses and all that jazz--
Mary Anne