Say what you will.........

Ran into a controversial discussion at work tonight. Lindsay, one of our Viz operators wanted to watch a cnn documentary on David Pearl. Yea, sure. Except that this of course sparked conversation regarding our position in Iraq, and subsequent topics.

Traditionally by polite conversation standards you ARE supposed to avoid topics like this, but I don't believe in tradition like that. So while one of the camera men, rattled on about how right we were to be there, how we should have, for all intents and purposes, decimated the entire middle east and wiped out an entire culture. I formed my rebuttal. I asked simply...how do you justify the difference between the US' actions in that scenario, and Nazi Germany?

Well...he didn't have an answer for that. He stumbled and stammered a bit, before finally, without any kind of logical progression of facts, he simply negated my comments, stopping just short of personally attacking me. I suppose I should feel "triumphant" because I "won" the logical argument. But it wasn't a win. The sheer callousness, and ignorance of this person actually unsettled me. And to know that its so common place is even worse. I didn't win the battle tonight because ignorance still exists. The worst part is my co worker is at LEAST in his late 50's early 60's. And as he snowballed the rest of the room into making crude jokes about the death of David Pearl, I couldn't help but want to loose my cool.

"Wouldn't you kill a rabid dog if he tried to attack and bite you" was something he asked me. "Maybe so, but that doesn't mean I kill every dog I see just because of ONE!" I was really shocked at his line of thinking. Then he went on to say "They're not even dogs, they're lower than dogs".....In my opinion sir, any higher life form, such as a human, who cannot feel compassion is more dangerous than any terrorist.

He said "I must be a Democrat" as if I were supposed to be insulted. If those are my only two options, I'd rather be a bleeding heart Democrat, than a mind controlled gun wielding murdering Republican, with blood on my hands.

Its stuff like this that really depresses me...because I can't change his mind. I couldn't find a solution for us to agree to disagree. And maybe that has nothing to do with me, but I still feel like I failed at something important.