The Beginning of This
Art Smith March 27th, 2006
There’s a pretty good chance you’ve never heard of me, and I don’t have
any reason to believe many people will read this, or care about my
thoughts. Thank goodness it’s okay for me to write and publish without
having to worry about all that.
If you are conservative, or
Republican, you’ll probably label me a centrist. Sure, go ahead, and I
think you’re probably an extremist conservative.
If you are
liberal, or Democrat (you know, these labels aren’t all the same,
right?) you probably think I’m a staunch conservative. I may believe
that you (based on the above label) only think for the moment and not
the long-term, but that’s okay, because the reality is, no matter what
we say, we all do that in some ways.
What you will probably find
is that, strange as it may seem, I try to listen to all points of view.
I don’t agree with every point of view, but I believe strongly in
listening to them as much as possible. In the course of discourse, I
think that as Americans we tend to cherish our right to speech, but
tend to ignore our right to listen… to our loss. Although I and my
writing partners will speak our minds on this blog, we are going to be
committed to listening (or reading, as it may be). What I ask of you,
as much as possible, is to take in and process the thoughts you find
here, and formulate your own opinions, but try (if you can) not to work
on formulating a “response” to these thoughts, as much as using them to
formulate your own contributions to the world in general.
One
other thing I want to make clear. I am a follower of Jesus Christ
(great, political religious fanatic… so now you think you know my
opinion on everything, right?) and that will impact what I say, how I
say it, and my decisions to edit any commentary that is provided on
this site. I will NOT tolerate abusive language, or outright religious
antagonism. I have no problem with comments that relate to faith,
although this blog is not intended to be a forum for religious
discussion (perhaps I will open one for that purpose if there is enough
time). Also, please no ads, no links to porn or adult sites of any
kind. I also reserve the right to kill any content I deem inappropriate.
Okay,
that’s probably a satisfactory beginning. Yes, I’m wordy. I believe
words have meaning, and and I believe in being clear and succinct in
what I say. If you don’t understand what a word I use means, I suggest
you go to one of the many online dictionaries to find the definition.
