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Boston Civilian Hero was Beat by 'Patriot' group

Wiseone

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I ran across this story and I thought it was interesting from the perspective of the kind of hatred and anger we often direct at ourselves, meaning our fellow Americans. The story is about this man, Carlos Arredondo, wearing the cowboy hat.

0417_Carlos.jpg


In 2004 his son was killed in Iraq by a sniper and Carlos attempted to commit suicide by burning himself alive with a can of gasoline. Later on he became passionately anti-war, he's what many of you would describe as a liberal who thinks we should have never invaded Iraq and it was done as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11. He attended protests were in 2007 he was assaulted by members of a counter protest going on at the same time. Later in 2011 his other son committed suicide

The Redemption Of The Man In The Cowboy Hat | Cognoscenti

Daily Kos: Boston Hero Carlos Arredondo Beaten by 'Gathering of Eagles' Thugs in 2007

The People Who Assaulted a Gold Star Father on September 15th | War Is A Crime .org

This topic isn't attempting to paint all liberals as selfless heroes or all conservatives as violent offenders, I'm making it in the hopes that some of the folks here who often try to dehumanize people they disagree with as "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie" you get the idea will remember what was demonstrated here. That despite political differences when things really started going bad none of that mattered and this man acted in a way we would all consider heroic and a fine example of American pride. Let's not let the things that are different about us, despite how passionately we feel about them in the present, ever let us dehumanize our fellow Americans who despite any political differences we'll always have far more in common with and share more beliefs with than anything that may be different between us.
 
Wow! What a story. I just finished reading everything on all 3 links including reader comments. Carlos Arredondo is quite an amazing American. He's been through hell and at times treated very badly. He is the change he wants to see in the world. What a fine example of what Americans should be.

Thanks, Wise. :clap:
 

How many times are you to try and play this card? I'm not a partisan, I don't have party interests in mind, I'm an independent, I have standards, holding up an example of liberal saying something stupid as if its going to make me back track or recant my statement because I don't want to criticize a liberal isn't going to work.

But ya kinda like that sergeant, it is sergeant right?
 
How many times are you to try and play this card? I'm not a partisan, I don't have party interests in mind, I'm an independent, I have standards, holding up an example of liberal saying something stupid as if its going to make me back track or recant my statement because I don't want to criticize a liberal isn't going to work.

But ya kinda like that sergeant, it is sergeant right?

I'm simply agreeing with you. What's your problem?

It's sergeant first class, but sergeant will do.
 

Apparently "I don't want a minority group to be singled out and hated for the actions of one individual" is such a terrible message to apdst.

If the bomber is a white, christian male, nobody is going to suggest we racially profile white people or prevent christians from building churches. Random white christians aren't going to be beaten in the street for looking like a terrorist. If the bomber turns out to be a member of the IRA, we're not going to bomb Scotland. Don't you agree?
 
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holding up an example of liberal saying something stupid

How is that any different than the op that holds up a 'liberal' as a hero, abused by 'the other guys'?


As for the OP. Those that do good deeds are not limited to the right or left, or owned by either side. But nor do good deeds make their politics valid.
 
Moderator's Warning:
Thread Jack another thread with the salon article and you're getting points. For those that are buying into the bait, I suggest you stick to the topic before you get wrapped up in the thread jacking issue yourself
 
In 2004 his son was killed in Iraq by a sniper and Carlos attempted to commit suicide by burning himself alive with a can of gasoline. Later on he became passionately anti-war, he's what many of you would describe as a liberal who thinks we should have never invaded Iraq and it was done as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11.

This topic isn't attempting to paint all liberals as selfless heroes or all conservatives as violent offenders, I'm making it in the hopes that some of the folks here who often try to dehumanize people they disagree with as "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie" you get the idea will remember what was demonstrated here.
Can you post some examples of people who call the parents of soldiers who died in combat "scum," "unamerican," "pink commies" or something similar?
 
Can you post some examples of people who call the parents of soldiers who died in combat "scum," "unamerican," "pink commies" or something similar?

Since you missed it:

...I'm making it in the hopes that some of the folks here who often try to dehumanize people they disagree with as "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie" you get the idea...

I haven't been a member here long enough to know whether or not we have members who are the parents of soldiers who died in combat, and if so whether or not other members have refered to those parents as "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie", or etc...

But the OP isn't specifically discussing the parents of soldiers who died in combat, or their treatment here.

Rather, he refers more generally to "people [we] disagree with".

Further, he isn't limiting use of epithets to "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie" specifically. He was just using them as examples, which is evidenced by his following that list with the phrase "you get the idea".

Essentially, what he's saying, is "don't be a douchebag to folks whose ideas you might disagree with, because they might be really stand-up people in many other respects".

I think he makes a great point.
 
Essentially, what he's saying, is "don't be a douchebag to folks whose ideas you might disagree with, because they might be really stand-up people in many other respects".

I think he makes a great point.
Seems rather obvious to me that people with different political views "can be really stand-up people in many other respects" - but if you find this to be some great insight, I'm glad you learned something. :shrug:
 
It's a good message, one I hope is universally carried along by people. Unfortunatenly, I don't have much faith in humanity or the general public that talk about politics. It won't be long before the usual suspects on the left are proclaiming a tea partier an bigoted fascist idiot or the usual suspects on the right proclaiming an anti-war proponent unamerican commie scum.
 
How many times are you to try and play this card? I'm not a partisan, I don't have party interests in mind, I'm an independent, I have standards, holding up an example of liberal saying something stupid as if its going to make me back track or recant my statement because I don't want to criticize a liberal isn't going to work.

But ya kinda like that sergeant, it is sergeant right?

Have you ever criticized a liberal?
 
Seems rather obvious to me that people with different political views "can be really stand-up people in many other respects" - but if you find this to be some great insight...

I think his exhortation to "not be a douchebag" (or a smarmy little punk, as the case may be) to those people just because you're posting from the safety/anonymity of the Internet (and as a result do not run the risk of getting your teeth knocked in) was the "great insight".

I'm glad you learned something.

Apparently you're much to clever to have learned anything.

:roll:
 
Since you missed it:



I haven't been a member here long enough to know whether or not we have members who are the parents of soldiers who died in combat, and if so whether or not other members have refered to those parents as "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie", or etc...

But the OP isn't specifically discussing the parents of soldiers who died in combat, or their treatment here.

Rather, he refers more generally to "people [we] disagree with".

Further, he isn't limiting use of epithets to "scum," "unamerican," "pink-commie" specifically. He was just using them as examples, which is evidenced by his following that list with the phrase "you get the idea".

Essentially, what he's saying, is "don't be a douchebag to folks whose ideas you might disagree with, because they might be really stand-up people in many other respects".

I think he makes a great point.

Said it exactly right.
 
It's a good message, one I hope is universally carried along by people. Unfortunatenly, I don't have much faith in humanity or the general public that talk about politics. It won't be long before the usual suspects on the left are proclaiming a tea partier an bigoted fascist idiot or the usual suspects on the right proclaiming an anti-war proponent unamerican commie scum.


Why not call A tea partier a "bigoted fascist idiot" if they happen to be one? You see that capitalised letter "A"? It is intended to mean ONE individual, not all members of a group.

It is the Conservatives who I see attacking groups because of the actions of ONE person who happens to be a member of said group. It is yet one more example of the binary thinking, the "either/or", the "MY way or the Highway" pattern of thought so often exhibited by our modern American right.
 
Why not call A tea partier a "bigoted fascist idiot" if they happen to be one? You see that capitalised letter "A"? It is intended to mean ONE individual, not all members of a group.

It is the Conservatives who I see attacking groups because of the actions of ONE person who happens to be a member of said group. It is yet one more example of the binary thinking, the "either/or", the "MY way or the Highway" pattern of thought so often exhibited by our modern American right.

It only took one sentence to contradict yourself. That has to be some kind of record.
 
At heart here the issue seems to be can one act redeem another act. That is entirely up to circumstance and personal opinion regarding each act evaluated. I've met folks who daily commit acts of kindness who act like total dickwads in certain circumstances, and I've met folks the other way around, who act with heinous disregard most times but in certain circumstances can be counted upon to come out the hero. We're most of us like that to a degree.

The guy's behavior in the anti-war circumstance, though understandably a result of his grief, were ugly in my book. His behavior in this circumstance was golden in my book. One doesn't speak to the other.
 
I doubt it, that's why this thread is another veiled attack on the Right.

It's just an example I used to make a point, if it makes it easier to understand than remove any mention of politics from the story and you have a guy who was beat and utterly disrespected for what he believed in, probably called Un-American, but when things really got bad he acted like a hero. The idea of the topic is to try and encourage people to not focus so much on the political differences that they don't see anything else, we don't need to dehumanize each other for our politics because when things really matter we're all on the same side. And when we focus on that positive aspect a little more it hopefully will reduce the amount of out right angry and sometimes I think hatred and goes for "political discourse" in this country.
 
It's just an example I used to make a point, if it makes it easier to understand than remove any mention of politics from the story and you have a guy who was beat and utterly disrespected for what he believed in, probably called Un-American, but when things really got bad he acted like a hero. The idea of the topic is to try and encourage people to not focus so much on the political differences that they don't see anything else, we don't need to dehumanize each other for our politics because when things really matter we're all on the same side. And when we focus on that positive aspect a little more it hopefully will reduce the amount of out right angry and sometimes I think hatred and goes for "political discourse" in this country.

The guy should never have been beaten, that's a given. However, his actions at the Boston tragedy do not say anything, or ameliorate his actions elsewhere.
 
The guy should never have been beaten, that's a given. However, his actions at the Boston tragedy do not say anything, or ameliorate his actions elsewhere.

Its not about "making up for something" that's the wrong kind of attitude to have, its about trying to view people you may have many political differences with is a more positive light by remembering the things we all have in common.
 
Its not about "making up for something" that's the wrong kind of attitude to have, its about trying to view people you may have many political differences with is a more positive light by remembering the things we all have in common.

Yeah, but that doesn't meet with the reality that we have political differences despite the fact we all (or most of us) have many things in common. Even the extreme leftist and the extreme rightist shouting at one another across the picket lies have things in common. Doesn't make the differnces they do have any less different.
 
Its not about "making up for something" that's the wrong kind of attitude to have, its about trying to view people you may have many political differences with is a more positive light by remembering the things we all have in common.

Why would I want to view those that want to destroy the Constitution and the possibility of a good future for my kids, in a positive light?
 
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