Strange Bedfellows

I got into a Facebook argument with a fellow last week over politics.  I didn't know it was an argument until he called me "retarded" and a "liberal fool".  Whoa!  The discussion had been over gun control from something that one of my former students had posted on his FB page.  The former student and I are both liberal thinkers; the responder was an ex-Marine, older family friend of the student.  He declared that he was armed and ready to defend his family against radical Islamist terrorists.  I said, "I seriously doubt that you will ever meet one, but you can keep hoping."  That's when he blew up.  He interpreted what I said to mean that I thought he was just out gunning to kill someone.  Not at all what I meant, but when I went back and looked at it, I could see how he could make that assumption.  Still, I never, ever, resort to name-calling.  I find that to be a characteristic of right-wingers who feel backed into a corner.  (Seriously.  Watch for it.  Liberals are called "libtards", and every sort of disrespect is aimed at the President...but you don't usually find the reciprocal when a conservative is the target of criticism.)

I was taken back by the ferocity of his accusation, then felt bad to think that--once again--the written word had failed to impart what I really meant.  What did I really mean?  I'm a practical person living in a so-called civilized society.  It is that society's supposition that our law enforcement people should be armed so the rest of us don't have to be.  That was, of course, before 9/11 and before the advent of terrorism and crazy people wanting to kill innocents in order to go out in a blaze of glory themselves. We live in a different world than the one I grew up in.  Right-wingers now are more paranoid than the left-wingers, assuming the worst and ready to do something about it, should the disasters happen.  The vast majority of us who die violent deaths will be killed by crashes on the roadways or by crazed drug thugs than by whacko mass shooters or Muslim jihadists, but you can't convince society's "hawks" of that.  I personally don't think that more guns is the answer to gun violence.  I don't know what the answer is.  I'm not pro-gun or anti-gun.  I just know that I will never own one.  I figure I would be more a danger to myself with a gun than any intruder, should something bad happen.  I believe that the paranoid ones among us are preparing themselves for things that will never happen.  I'm okay with that, until it gets rabid--which it does on a regular basis.  The country is divided over this.

Still, I wrote the fellow a personal message on Facebook to tell him that I did not intend what he had apparently read into what I had written.  It was an apology of sorts.  What I received in reply was an invitation to lunch for today.  Now here is the rest of the story: this man is the parent of two of my former students.  I remembered him for the day that he came to school in order to walk his son through the day, holding his hand in the halls and feeding him like a baby in the lunchroom just to make a point to his errant son who was flunking classes.  He didn't know anything about me--obviously didn't remember me at all.  We avoided talking politics, but as an ex-Marine, he said he was probably very patriotic, blah, blah.  He was wearing Marine garb and asked me if I knew what Semper Fi means.  He seemed shocked that I did...and then seemed shocked again when I said, "I was a military kid!"

We ate at a popular local cafeteria--Gray's--and I ran into several people that I knew, and some that I didn't who introduced themselves to me because of my amateur radio license plate, etc.  We talked about our politics and reasons for them but never ventured into anything controversial.  We came to an understanding.  Ol' Roy and I can now joke on the FB page of our mutual friend.  I'm grateful for the opportunity.  Cooler heads truly CAN prevail!