In repsonse to “My Name is Bob Whitaker,” Derek says,
“Yes indeed…I don’t know Bob. I just know his ideas and thoughts. I guess that is enough really. ”
“I have been writing in short, declaritive sentences since I first read Hemingway. It is easier to communicate with others when you are direct.”
“Maybe that is why I feel like I fit in even though I don’t know squat in comparison with some of the elder, more learned commenters. ”
Comment by Derek
MY REPLY:
The last sentence pissed me off royally.
Everybody here, even including Joe, whose respect is not easy to come by and who is an old bastard like me, has made it clear that they respect you.
Dammit, and I think I speak for the rest of us older folks, you should APPRECIATE that!
All that apology doesn’t do a damned thing for me. What would compliment me would be if you were cocky about it, if you said, “Here I am in Bob’s Blog, where nobody gets a break. Bob and Joe and Peter and Mark and Shari and Anonymous and all the rest have no mercy. If they think I’m being dumb, they will say so.”
“I am running with the fastest crowd there is, and I am holding my own.”
Now THAT, for you and Shari and anybody else who uses apologies, would be a COMPLIMENT.
Because it is TRUE, which is the one thing we stick to here.
You can apologize yourself to death, but nobody here is going to give you a break.
So what’s the point of all the apology crap?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that a young man has not been around as long as Joe and I have.
We also know you are not purple.
Now that I’ve gotten to what is NOT rocket science, let me make a further observation.
Human beings regularly choke to death. That’s why we have the Heimlich Maneuver. Other animals don’t need it because they are not handicapped by the low-lying vocal chords we have. We DIE so we can TALK.
Evolution or Creation, there is a REASON we die so we can TALK.
Talk is critical to us.
You know me because you know what I SAY, not because I smell like a member of the pack. Dogs hardly notice TV because they can’t SMELL it.
We are an eye-oriented animal. We are an IDEA oriented animal. There is a REASON for this.
I am a white man. I LOOK like you. You know my ideas from what I SAY.
The OBJECT: to save people who LOOK like us. The MEANS: Ideas.
You KNOW me.
#1 by joe rorke on 02/03/2006 - 9:10 pm
You are correct, Bob, in saying that Joe’s respect is not easy to come by. Permit me to say that I have no disrespect for anyone who is in this room. You see, I think of this Blog (as they call it) as a room with people in it who are conversing not so much with each other as with you. If there are young people here, I rejoice. Bob Whitaker’s ideas need to be absorbed and thoroughly understood by young people. Us “old bastards” will be moving on right soon. Our world, as I see it, will be in the hands of the younguns. When I was a youngun I consider that I was dumber than catdung. I had teachers when I got older. I was willing to learn. I never did think I knew it all. Still don’t. That’s a reason to live one more day. Learn something new. I always learn something on Bob’s Blog. But I sure don’t disrespect the younger people in this room. In fact, I have a high degree of respect for them just BEING HERE.
Bob Whitaker is either right or wrong in the position that he takes. If you think he’s right, you should hang out with him. If you have any doubt at all that what he is saying is true, you should either inquire in greater depth or try another channel.
I think he’s right. In spades.
In the final analysis I think history will prove that he is right by virtue of that which will occur. That’s my opinion.
I think I know Bob Whitaker. We never met personally. Doesn’t matter. I know his spirit. I know him by his spirit. The mental apparatus works in conjunction with the spirit. I am interested in spirits. Whoops, don’t get nervous. The Bible says (everytime I say that I think of Billy Graham), “try the spirits, whether they be of God.” I just happened to watch a documentary film on television last night which was a very unusual occurrence. It was about the mass murderer Josef Stalin. For every thousand horsewhippings the television viewer in America gets of Adolph Hitler (German dictator in the 20th century) we get to see one portrayal of the infinitely more sinister Josef Stalin. My point is that the spirit of Josef Stalin was not in keeping with the will of God. In my opinion. Josef Stalin, in my opinion, represents an evil spirit. The spirit of Bob Whitaker is not an evil spirit. I am sure of that.
When Bob Whitaker was a young man he sensed that there was something not right in the world. That is a reasonable sensitivity. Bob Whitaker found himself surrounded by dark spirits. He didn’t like it. He protested. And he’s still protesting. That doesn’t make him wrong. That just makes him perceptive. He sees. Seeing is the opposite of blindness.
Bob just gets angry now and again. He’s tired of beating his head against the wall. You can’t blame him for that. At least, I can’t. There’s not a doubt in my mind that he’s right. I don’t even blame him for beating up on the WWII generation. I think he’s right about that too. Look what they gave away. The whole kit and caboodle. And they called themselves heroes. The man is right. They rested on their laurels. Then they fell on their collective faces and said, “here, do us.” And they did do them. In spades. And their children as well. And their children’s children.
#2 by Derek on 02/04/2006 - 1:05 pm
Okay.
I wanted to tell a funny story. I just got back from Honduras. We had a tour guide there named Angel.
I asked Angel if he wanted to go to America. He said “Yeah, but a place where there are no other Latinos.” I laughed my ass off for two reasons.
One – he wanted to escape his own people. After spending a week there I did too. It was dirt…just pure filth.
Two – if he moved to a place with no Latinos there would all of the sudden be one there. He was married so the chances of there being more were good. After some time there would be an epidemic of them in the very region he didn’t want to have other Latinos in.
I wonder how long it would take for this once un-Latino area to look just like all the dirt-poor, filthy areas of South America that he wanted to get away from.
He said immigrating to America would be tough. Thank God.