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Because of my quite skinny elder son's tendency to tuck his keys into his baggy-jeans waistband, thus dropping them in the soon-to-be-locked car door or front door, we've had two or three occasions to call Gary, and when we decide how to update the locks on our front door, we'll call him again. He's good, he's fair, he's reasonable, and . . . he neither treats me rudely because of our multitudinous disagreements, nor fawns over me as if we were best buddies, just because I need a new key or something. Either of those would annoy me.<br><br>In truth, I like him -- probably, to be honest, a bit more than he cares for me -- and I have no desire to see him or anyone else unfairly attacked, here or elsewhere. Deb's experience doesn't surprise me a bit. I'd rather engage with an honest conservative than with small-souled, shiftless progressive any time -- even when their honest conservatism leads them to criticize me, and criticize me harshly. I feel the same way about Paul, Jeff, and Roger. In fact, in one of those really weird coincidences that happen often, I was
thinking this morning, before I read anything online or elsewhere, of
writing Paul a note to thank him for his very kind words of condolence
to me after the shootings in Tucson. I realized I hadn't paid much
appreciative attention to his supporting words and instead answered his
perspective, with which I disagreed, on what provokes the political and
social climate that I think precipitates acts of violence like this. I
intended, once dinner was done, to sit down and drop him a line -- and
now, here we are. (And dinner's a lost cause anyway; I won't ever change to a different kind of sauce again!)<br><br>So, Paul, while this would've been off-list
earlier, I do want to thank you for words you wrote after my initial
"Tucson shooting" post that expressed what came across as genuinely
heartfelt sympathy for the losses I was anticipating for my mother, as
well as for my grief about the whole tragedy. I've said before that you
seem to be a more than decent guy, and this time I was the recipient of
that decency, which is all the more appreciated because you offered it
to me even while disagreeing with me. Thank you. <br><br>If I'm not tough enough to face a verbal smackdown, I'm definitely not tough enough to be a part of this forum. I like this thread and, even though I'm not planning to rejoin Vision anytime soon, recent events notwithstanding, I hope it continues to bear fruit.<br><br><br><font style="" color="#8064a2"><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><font style="" face="Verdana">Keely<br>www.keely-prevailingwinds.com<br></font></font></font><br><br><br><br><hr id="stopSpelling">From: debismith@moscow.com<br>To: jampot@roadrunner.com<br>Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:08:22 -0600<br>CC: vision2020@moscow.com<br>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] (no subject)<br><br>
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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">OK, just a moment out of the free-for-all bashing
and point-counter-point.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">I am a big fan of Joe Campbell. We sort of swing
the same way in politics and opinions. He's also a darn nice guy. Sometimes I
want him to calm down a bit, but sometimes he probably wants me to just shut up.
OK.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">I have not been a big fan of Gary Crabtree, but I
have never met him in person, so all I had to go on were his postings on V2020.
I seldo (well, almost never) agree with a darn thing he has to say. I had no
idea if he was a nice guy or a total asshat, but I knew he was not on my page,
and probably was in anentirely different book. OK.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">About 4:15 today, I foolishly locked my keys in my
car. The spare key was at home. My partner was not. What to do? Call the
Locksmith! As I was downtown, I went to Gary's Lockshop--fortunately, he was
there. He drove me back to my car, quickly and efficiently got it open, I
retrieved my keys from the front seat where they had fallen from my very shallow
front pocket just as I slammed the (locked) door, he drove me back to the
Lockshop so I could pay him the (reasonable) $40 with the credit card I had
cleverly left in my handbag in the locked car. I was thanking him all the way,
as I had things to do, and could still do them!</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">When Gary saw the card, my name registered with
him. He made a comment about me posting negatively about him on the V---I said
something about not remembering saying anything about him personally (though,
Goddess knows I probably have!). He made me a spare key and gave me a magnet for
it (no extra charge) and took me back to my car.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">We shook hands, said we were glad to meet one
another in person, and both got on with our day. OK.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Just a reminder to me, and I hope to everyone out
there. We can disagree, we can be nasty to one another, we can hold radically
different opinions. At the end of the day, Gary got me into my car, and I owe
him some organic veggies (at a reasonable price!). We are still a community, win
lose or draw. Maybe we can stop hacking at each other on a personal level once
in a while? Criticism, contention, refutation, debate----all fine. Let's just
try to keep the personal insults to a minimum. Just because we disagree doesn't
mean either one of us is evil.....<br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
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