These past few months have been rather busy, but things are starting to wind down now. For example I just went to my last debate tournament of the season. As tradition with my club on the last night we all went out to a specific restaurant before the final placement announcements. I'm usually a quiet person. I don't tend to talk unless there is good reason. I always try to have something worth hearing before I speak. Well anyway, during dinner the conversation degraded to talking about Nazi Germany and about how one of the club members had German ancestry. It quickly became 'ha ha my grandfather killed your grandfather...' ect. Which nearly everyone thought was funny. I see this as terribly foolish. Not only is it degrading to those men and women who fought and died so these...kids could have the freedom they take for granted; it also devalues human life. They were casting history into the dirt of meaninglessness. Now I care about these things enough to not do it myself but I don't think it's my place to tell them not to. I certainly might ask, 'please don't talk about this', but I won't tell them not to do it.
One particular mindset of mine came into action during this conversation. I consider any woman near me to also be 'under my protection' unless there is another person to whom that responsibility falls. Please understand this is not because I consider women to be weak. On the contrary I consider them to be remarkably strong and I have such a respect for them, I consider their well being to be important. I try to be chivalrous, out of respect. I try to be a knight in my own time as much as I can.
You may be seeing how these two things coincide. During the conversation the young lady sitting across from me expressed that she was not comfortable laughing at those things. She said she didn't think it was right and asked to change the topic. I still haven't said anything in this conversation and that's not unusual for me; but, two of the guys start pressing the lady trying to get her to laugh, going on and on. I have a problem with that. I have a problem with anyone who purposefully tries to get someone to violate their own conscious. These guys thought it was funny to get her to do something which she said she didn't want to do because she thought it was wrong. Then I said one thing. It was a question. 'Why do you derive pleasure from causing her to do something, she has expressed interest not to do?'
It never ceases to amaze me just how many people listen to you when you only speak once every five or ten minutes. Well they never answered my question, the topic of conversation changed quickly; one of the other ladies didn't smile for the rest of dinner; and I moved over a seat and engaged in a productive conversation.
Often I start these posts with a quote. Today I am going to leave you with a few quotes of my own, "To trip a man solely because he is walking, that is malice." I cry out to you... "Beware! For evil does not lunge upon a man in full form. It creeps, taking but one little concession at a time."
On the way back from that tournament I wrote this "In order to cause a generation to forget those lessons learned from history, one need only to talk about that history in a light, jovial, and careless manner." Heed the lessons learned from our ancestors in the past. Open the history books. Read them aloud in the streets if need be. Let us never laugh in the face of evil, for if we ever think we are that far above it....we are terribly mistaken. Let us never be kicked by the ass twice.
