Column #5: Treatise of the dumb white boy
A critic writes in, and in doing so, shows exactly why this web site is
necessary.
I knew that it was going to happen eventually. I really didn't think,
though, that it would come this quickly.
Back in 1997 I entered politics for this first time by running
Good Sports, an organization that fought the Regional Renaissance
Initiative, or in plain-speak, a referendum that would have raised the
sales tax of up to 11 counties to pay for new stadiums for the Pirates and
Steelers. I'm reminded today of one story from that time.
We received a phone call from a person one day who was very interested
in joining our group, and wanted lots of information about us. After the
phone call, we realized there was something forgot to tell him, and was
star-69'ed him.
The call went to our main opposition group. Just two months into our
operation, we already had a spy. At the time I was rather complimented by
it: this meant we were being taken seriously. These days, I'm more
depressed by it than anything else. We're always going to have
disagreements in our world (and that's a good thing), but we don't have to
resort to invasionary tactics like these. Yet it's something I don't think
we've learned yet.
So I expected that We Won't Pay would eventually have to contend
with the same problem. I didn't think, however, that we'd get it as early
as signee #5.
The list of pledges had a new name added today:
- Name: Dumb White Boy
- Email: dumbwhiteboy@aol.com
- Location:
- Comments: Everyone knows slavery is just another hoax used to
justify affirmative action.
There were no slaves. We never treated other human beings as chattle,
never tortured, never rape and lynched, never denied housing, jobs, nor
sufferage to African Americans.
Even if you missed the fact that the comments use the same language as
reparations proponents but in the negative (I've never seen the word
"sufferage" used by anyone except those in favor of it), this was a
ridiculously bogus entry. No reparations proponent that I've ever seen has
ever made a revisionist argument that slavery, and many of the wrongs that
followed it, didn't exist. And I certainly have never made them myself.
Now the thing is, it's so obvious that this was a phony that it's hard
to accuse the person(s) who sent this of dishonesty: it was that
over-the-top, I presume, specifically for the sake of protest against this
site. And protest is fine. The thing is, I make it rather clear on the page
to add your name that the page was not meant to be a discussion board. And
my email address is made clear
to whoever wants to discuss the issue with me, and it's nigh-impossible to
offend me.
Yet despite all of that, I got the above entry, which I immediately
removed from the page (something I made clear I would do in such a
circumstance). Instead of choosing any of the multiple avenues available to
anyone who would actually like to disucss the issue with me, the person(s)
who did this chose the most anonymous and dishonest route that they could
have (well, at least the easiest of the anonymous and dishonest routes),
and decided upon a low-level form of invasion.
And that exemplifies part of why I choose to run this web site.
As I stated above, disagreement are inevitable, because each one of us
has a unique set of eyes which we use to view the world. Therefore
discussions about these views are an inherently good thing: it's how we
progress through new ideas. But not all forms of arguing are equally
efficient or effective.
We could, for example, just go straight to war. That's a neat little way
of settling things, is it not? Bang, bang, problem solved. Of course
getting reparations from a dead man is a bit trickier. OK, no, I'm not
suggesting that that is what anyone wants. Quite the opposite, in fact: we
set up systems in our lives specifically so that we can solve things in
other ways. Of all these systems, I don't feel that there is any of them
more efficient than simple, honest, peaceful communication between
individuals.
So I really should be honest, then, when I say that it's not impossible
that I might change my mind about this someday. I am serious in everything
that I say in this web site, and I've got a lot more to say about it. But I
also know that there are very few more important qualities to have as a
sentient being than a complete and utter humility regarding what it is that
you think you know or believe at any time. I've changed a lot over the
years, and I know that as time goes on, I'll change more.
Now let it be clear that this doesn't mean that a quick email or two and
I'll take this site down. The principles that are at the center of why I
put this site together are core to everything that makes up the way that I
see life. They've been tested and re-tested in countless situations and
disciplines. They've been worked on so much that at this point, you'd have
to come up with something awfully devastating to convince me why it is that
we should hold onto to something which ended 137 years ago, and choose a
horrible inaccurate translation of how we determine "oppressor" and
"oppressee" in order to address this long-dead wrong.
You'll certainly have your hands full with such an endeavor. But you
know what? We'll never know unless we talk it out. And I have made it quite
clear that I'm not afraid to. Anyone who looks at this site knows my name
and picture.
And on top of that, what I'm saying I will do could very well
land me into legal trouble. If I were to follow my pledge to the letter, it
very well could land me in jail.
Yet you, whoever it is that emailed me, sent me an anonymous reply (though
if anyone would want to investigate what 216.126.138.47 was doing at
12:59:17 EST I'm sure they could), in response to the fact that they wanted
to take money from me. I'm defending myself publicly, and you are trying to
take things from me, and are hiding in shadows to do it. To put it mildly,
this seems a bit asynchronous.
So my question to this anonymous warrior is, do you really want it this
way? And looking at the entire reparations debate, do you really want it
this way? Is there no better way to deal with this than to go straight to
the law, and force a single, blunt, monolithic solution onto a society that
quite clearly has not come to anything remotely resembling a consensus on
this?
I don't. I think all throughout this entire issue there are better ways
to work this out. So let this be known to his person, or to anyone else who
would want to do such things. The dumb white boy is here, and I'm ready to
talk this out.
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