This has been a disturbing and thought-provoking thread.
Disturbing because it is full of the vituperative rhetoric that is the cause IMO of much that is wrong in the USA and the world today - and probably for centuries.

Thought-provoking because I am currently working on trying to define for my Quaker community the reason why I am distressed by the recurrent and very new use of the word "discussion" as a replacement for the traditional term "consideration". In this thread, I am seeing an even more difficult word - debate, another step beyond discussion although closely akin to it and, too often IMO, where "discussion" leads.

If we are truly concerned about the negative rhetoric being used in the world, do we not need to be looking at how we, ourselves, conduct our threads, and other interactions? If so, how can we accomplish that?

The reason I am concerned that the traditional term is used is because words do affect the way we perceive the process. Consideration has the denotation of thoughtfulness (amongst other synonyms). Discussion, debate, argument - the downhill slope is not necessary but too often occurs. And certainly has in this thread, as it does in many.

Some of us are looking for a non-violent approach to life, others choose to be violent in their written word. As we learn more and more about our interconnections as human beings and considerably more about how the brain and its DNA are affected by traumas of various sorts, I look at people with so-called mental illness in a very different way.

In the midst of the violent rhetoric and feelings flying around in the air, the ether, the sound waves, and in peoples very beings, it seems to me not only possible but probable that someone who in open to those "vibes" ( I use that as a catchall for what I am trying to say, knowing full well someone out there in mudville will take umbrage) can be affected without hearing the verbiage, without being aware they are hearing it, with very little actual awareness of what is going on, they can be negatively affected by all this negativity flying around them. (Wow, what a run on sentence! REad it again if you need to do so.)

I do not believe this poor guy who shot those folks was unaffected by the environment in which he has been living. The rhetoric which needs to be "toned down" out there is affecting every one of us. So does the rhetoric here on mudcat. When I "sent a letter to Sarah Palin" through one of my on line orgs, this is what I sent:


If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
Lao Tzu

And it needs to start here.

And I am prepared for whatever, whoever, throws my way as a result of this post.