Friday, April 04, 2008

A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way

Seems like there's a lot of name-calling and unpleasant things in the news recently, both here in Canada and in the U.S. So what else is new, I guess, eh?

Take the Lukinwski story that broke here yesterday. A 16-year-old video tape surfaced of a current Conservative MP. He was a politcal organizer back then and had had a few drinks one night and his uglier side showed through. Among other things, he said:

There's A's and there's B's. The A's are guys like me. The B's are homosexual faggots with dirt on their fingernails that transmit diseases.


Nice.

State-side, there's the uproar about Thomas Beatie, the female to male transgender guy who is pregnant. He's been called a lot of things, with even David Letterman labelling him an "androgynous freak show."

Makes me want to just bury my head in the sand for a while. I admit that the sight of a pregnant man gives me pause, but even today in some parts, 2 guys or 2 gals walking down the street arm in arm could and does illicit the same response.

And, while I don't want to make this another post about my mother, she always taught me to try to think before I speak. She told me that before I say something, I should put it through 3 tests: 1) Is it true? 2) Is it necessary? And 3) Is it KIND?

I sure as heck don't make the grade a lot of the time, but I don't think there's any arguing with the sentiment. I wish we could all follow these 3 simple rules for a while. The world would be a kinder place - or at least a quieter one.

4 comments:

Bruno Laliberté said...

i see your mom raised you properly.
nice!!
my mom, who now rests in peace, could never rid me of my big mouth... but i know how to apologize, if i feel it's needed...
:D~
i also spoke of lukiwski on a blog of mine. i was not so kind as you...
what a shocker!!!
(if you're wondering how i landed on your page, i found you on notorious.joe...)
:)~

Jeff said...

Nice to see you ticklebear :-)

Anonymous said...

Fuckin' excellent advice your mother gave you! And ...uhmmm ...what was that you were saying earlier about swearing more with age? :-P

Jeff said...

LOL! I know. I think I missed my calling. I should have been a preacha man. "Do as I say, nit do as I do!" :-)