Johnny, it's just hard for me to understand why you would take me to the woodshed for calling Foxton "Fartston," but remain silent when he called me "Old Pos." Is there some positive meaning for "pos?" And even if there were, it's still deliberately misrepresenting my name. Should I turn the other cheek? Probably. Sadly, that's not my nature. On that psychological continuum of Passive--Assertive--Aggressive, I too frequently skip over Assertive and get right to aggressive. Perhaps I can join Anthony Weiner in rehab. Which brings me to another of my shortcomings: my tendency to sarcasm. And I suspect too many of us take it literally, when I'm only trying to be funny. I think many posters who are "offended" by my posts claim it's the style when in fact it's the substance that offends them. I'm saying things they don't like. With which they disagree. If I posted in the same style but went after, say, Sarah Palin, I think a lot of the objections would melt away. Maybe not. Anyway, it comes down to what strikes me as a double standard. The name calling by others is "cute," Old Pio's name calling is "offensive," and indicative of some mental disturbance and certainly a lack of intellectual fire power.
Perhaps I'm "better" or "worse" (depending on your perspective) at being agressive, I can't say. But from where I sit, one of my posts frequently results in a wave of opposing posts (generating conversation is the general idea, isn't it?) which inevitably veer away from the subject at hand to my various character flaws. Leswp, whom I'll concede is a fine person, is particularly prone to this kind of analysis coupled with head shaking and tongue clucking. He almost certainly doesn't mean to come across like a little old lady school marm, but that's how I perceive it on occasion.
Let me give you a relevant example of how things go around here. Last Indepenjdence Day, you posted a touching story about the old vet who came down to the waterfront and saluted. Remember? I posted that there's a lot of good in America. This was followed by a post from maybe the best we've got that what I had said was "politics," and should be avoided. On the 4th of July no less. How can any fair minded person think that? The only explantion I see is based on a prejudice ("pre judging") what I meant. I run into these prejudices just about every day. I watch Fox, I'm in love with Hannity, O'Reilly, Beck, etc. I'm pro-life. I love Sarah Palin. None of it is true. I'm a fiscal conservative, sure, but I think that pinhead O'Reilly is a disgrace, for reasons I've explained previously.
All of this is sounding more defensive than I intended. Let's just say I'm aware of my flaws and will work harder to control them. I'm confident I'm older than most of our posters, and may bring a perspective they don't have, on the other hand, maybe I'm "stuck in the past." I guess it's a matter of how you look at it. I'll make a good faith effort to be less aggressive in return for a good faith effort by my colleagues at being a little less judgemental about the geezer. Okay? And thanks for taking the time to write.
