Wow... a whole lot of dancing shoes got dusted off today, huh?

[Freeper]

cherokeeprogressive
 
Wow... a whole lot of dancing shoes got dusted off today, huh?

I haven't seen so much gleeful grave dancing since Tony Snow died. Boy that was a fun-filled hatefest, wasn't it.

I've been amused today by the back-and-forths concerning who's "better than that" and who isn't. Some ARE better than that. Then again, some aren't. Without variety, I guess it really wouldn't be a horse-race, now would it?

Hating someone for their ideology is fine, and it really ups one's creds when they voice that hatred out loud in front of their peers. To me though; we're all humans no matter what direction our ideologies take us in. To say otherwise is to simply engage in cheap hyperbole. So while hating for ideology to the point of grave dancing strengthens one's liberal creds, it cheapens those very same people as human beings.

I mentioned Tony Snow in the beginning of this post because while reading all the hatred today I was reminded of what Elizabeth Edwards wrote about his death when it happened. That woman sure knew how to put things in their proper perspective...


Elizabeth Edwards on Tony Snow's life and death
By Elizabeth Edwards | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Jul 14, 2008 | Updated: 1:33 p.m. ET Jul 14, 2008


Tony Snow has died. A young man (with my next birthday being number sixty, I am entitled to the folly of calling a fifty-three year old "young"), with a facile mind, an easy smile, and a quick wit; a man who had a perpetual twinkle in his eye when he was doing what he he born to do; a man who loved his wife and his children; a man who loved politics and maybe a little more loved the verbal sparring that comes with politics well-played; a man who desperately did not want to die. And when he died, I cried. I know I cried not just for him, but—filled with fear—for myself as well. The diagnoses of our cancer recurrences ("recurrences" being one of those misnomers we simply endure) tumbled out upon one another by days, and I felt—and feel— connected to a man who loved what I loved, although we came to nearly every argument from opposite corners of the ring.

Last week—when Tony was still alive and I was not so afraid—I rode my bicycle in a small Fourth of July parade at the beach to which we have gone for close to two decades. When I got to the celebration and stepped off the bicycle, an older man approached me. I hope you are doing well, he said, and then he added—oddly, it is more often the case that people do feel obliged to confess the gap between us—"although we don't agree on much of anything." I thanked him for his good wishes and then I added—as I often do—"and I suspect we agree on more than you think." He smiled, I smiled, and that was that. And then Tony died. And I thought more about the things on which we agree and the things on which we disagree. And as with my parade companion, I suspect Tony and I agreed on more things that we might have guessed.

We each chose to reach for something larger than the life and body with which we were saddled when we kept our course after the last diagnoses. We did it because we thought it was important and because (although it is chic to say that one detests politics) we actually loved the give and take it, the struggle to find what you think is right and the imperative to make others understand and agree. But what, in the end, does it tell us about what we each found to be really important? I am guessing it is not school vouchers or the expensing of stock options or class action lawsuits about salacious material in video games. It was that woman who stood with him years before and promised to love him in sickness and in health; it was those children, whose births marked the very best days of his life. And it isn't so different for any of us, is it? Not for the rich man or the poor man, for the Ethopian or the Thai or the Oregonian. So why do we have such trouble turning what we have in common into common cause? There will always be fault lines where we just disagree, but can't we find—maybe in our founding documents—the things on which we do agree and work from there instead of starting always, always perched as soldiers along those fault lines?

We hear the words of common cause recited. We even felt it as a nation—maybe as a planet—after the horrors of September 11th made us forget whom we supposed to hate. But the finely worded leaflet blows away in the wind, or the calendar pages turn. And we are back where we always were.

Three of the captives who were released after five and a half years in Colombia were interviewed this past week. We had a great deal of time, they said, to examine our former selves—our conduct, our values, our choices—and we now know something none of you can know about what really matters. And we are different today because we know. Is that the only way we get to the point of dropping our guard, our weaponry? The horrors of September 11th, half a decade in captivity, the guillotine of a fatal disease over our heads? It cannot be. We cannot let it be.

Tony Snow has died. And lots of people who valued the same things Tony did—a family well-loved and work well-done—have died and will die of colon cancer, those who have preceded Tony and those who will follow him. Can't we start with something easy on which we can agree? That no one should die of a disease we can find and stop? And when we agree—and agree to do something about it—then we can move on toward those fault lines, like Tony, not taking no for an answer.

© 2008

Elizabeth Edwards was able to speak of a man's passing who by all accounts was diametrically opposed to everything she believed in. She was able to do it with grace and class.

She proved that there ARE people who are "better than that".

Now you can imagine that his wife and kids are happy or the very least relieved at his passing, as I've seen done here today by one of DU's most famous and beloved posters, or you can reflect on what empathy is and how frail and fragile life is, and how those left behind by the departed have to pick up the pieces and move on in spite of the hatred some of us feel for those loved ones they lost.

Me? I threw away my dancing shoes decades ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002371435

Ok since I am fair I posted this thread.

[Delmar]

Response to cherokeeprogressive (Original post)Thu Mar 1, 2012, 10:06 PM
 denbot
3. Your a better man then I.

I will refrain from posting my "dance" gif.

I'm no grammar nazi, but that's sure a hell of a mess for such a short reply, dumbot.

[Chris_]

I hope cp is wearing his Space Shuttle underwear.

[IassaFTots]

CP, good on ya. 

[wasp69]

cherokeeprogressive
 
Wow... a whole lot of dancing shoes got dusted off today, huh?

Pearls before swine, cherokeeprogressive, but good on ya, nonetheless.

[Ballygrl]

That was a beautiful post cherokeeprogressive and I'd give you a Hi Five if you posted here.

[AllosaursRus]

That was a beautiful post cherokeeprogressive and I'd give you a Hi Five if you posted here.

Sounds to me like maybe he oughta. Come on over Cherokee!

[delilahmused]

Your a class act CP!

Cindie

[JakeStyle]

CP, good on ya. 

Yeah he can surprise you by acting like decent guy every now and then.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002371435

Ok since I am fair I posted this thread.

At our old home (as frank calls CU), the DU watch forum is called the Best/Worst of DU.  CP, for today at least, you're the best of DU.

[Karin]

Beth responds to CP:

EFerrari (160,470 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

8. Empathizing with sociopaths is potentionally contaminating.

I'll save mine for the people who are homeless because they don't have ACORN to help them any more. **** Breitbart and the corporate money he rode in on.

ACORN specialized in fraud, voting and otherwise. 

"Empathizing" with "homeless."  Is there not a more typical liberal lefty stance than that?  I'll empathize, that makes me feel good, and therefore I am a superlative person. 

[Rufus2010]

Shame that the other 99% (no pun intended) of his brethren can't act like him from time to time...

[Rufus2010]

Beth responds to CP:

ACORN specialized in fraud, voting and otherwise. 

"Empathizing" with "homeless."  Is there not a more typical liberal lefty stance than that?  I'll empathize, that makes me feel good, and therefore I am a superlative person. 

The Gravedancing Queen opens her sewer trap.

[whiffleball]

You friggin idiot Beth!  ACORN is now NY Communities for Change - it has a new name, a new name, a new name.  Are you reading this, Beth?  They have a new name.

[Wineslob]

I still have an issue with the fact that they hate an opposing view. Why not disagree DUmbasses?

[jukin]

In my life I have learned that the actions someone hates are usually the actions that they themselves perpetrate on a regular basis.

[wasp69]

In my life I have learned that the actions someone hates are usually the actions that they themselves perpetrate on a regular basis.

Show me what a man holds in contempt and I'll show you what he is lacking.

[jukin]

Show me what a man holds in contempt and I'll show you what he is lacking.

Better said.

[GOBUCKS]

Beth responds to CP:

"Empathizing" with "homeless."  Is there not a more typical liberal lefty stance than that? 

Yes, and it comes so easily to someone crammed into a little humpbacked camper, far out in the California desert, with her elderly, demented mother and two big smelly dogs. Poor, stupid Beth.

[delilahmused]

EFerrari (160,470 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

8. Empathizing with sociopaths is potentionally contaminating.

I'll save mine for the people who are homeless because they don't have ACORN to help them any more. **** Breitbart and the corporate money he rode in on.

Empathize all you want, Beth, but when you had a chance to take a homeless person in when you were living the good life in SF (probably on Doug's dime) you threw him a sandwich or some other little token and rushed to DU to tell them how compassionate you were. But I don't know why I should expect anything better from you. How about thinking about all the homeless that could have been helped had they not been helping people like pimps & their underage ho's. Your outrage is selective you stupid twat! Even now you're living better than a homeless person, if you truly lived your values you'd take in one of those poor people displaced by exposing ACORN. But no, it's easier to bitch than practice what you preach.

Cindie

[Airwolf]

Good on Cherokeeprogresive. He is at least honest and right about this.

[AllosaursRus]

Empathize all you want, Beth, but when you had a chance to take a homeless person in when you were living the good life in SF (probably on Doug's dime) you threw him a sandwich or some other little token and rushed to DU to tell them how compassionate you were. But I don't know why I should expect anything better from you. How about thinking about all the homeless that could have been helped had they not been helping people like pimps & their underage ho's. Your outrage is selective you stupid twat! Even now you're living better than a homeless person, if you truly lived your values you'd take in one of those poor people displaced by exposing ACORN. But no, it's easier to bitch than practice what you preach.

Cindie

Too bad you and I are both married Cindie! I think I luv you! (just kiddin', "Toots" would kill me first and I'd like to live a few more years! You're spot on every time I read your posts!

Keep up the good work!

[BEG]

Too bad you and I are both married Cindie! I think I luv you! (just kiddin', "Toots" would kill me first and I'd like to live a few more years! You're spot on every time I read your posts!

Keep up the good work!

Ummmm, I'm tellin'.

[AllosaursRus]

Ummmm, I'm tellin'.

Too late! I left it on the screen while I went out to feed, and she got home from work while I was outside.

Trust me, I caught hell, and them some, but I know how to calm her down, heheheheheheheheh!

She's the love of my life and she knows it! She just likes to give me hell every once in a while so I don't get used to takin' her fer granted.

Women!

Can't live with 'em, and ya sure as hell can't live without 'em!!!!!!!!!!!

[wasp69]

Too late! I left it on the screen while I went out to feed, and she got home from work while I was outside.

Trust me, I caught hell, and them some, but I know how to calm her down, heheheheheheheheh!

She's the love of my life and she knows it! She just likes to give me hell every once in a while so I don't get used to takin' her fer granted.