E.N.O.U.G.H

I'm not in a good mood.

I woke, as usual. I brushed my teeth, fixed a cup of tea, and crawled back into bed to check out the weather on the laptop. We are expecting a winter storm, and I wanted to check the weather forecast, in case there had been some significant changes. I turned it on and settled in while it loaded up. A sip of tea, and I opened my email to first check that.

Well.

Let me enter a disclaimer here. If you are Conservative, Republican you may not want to read on from here. I hope you do, because I want to hear what you say, but you need to know I'm preparing a serious rant, I'm pissed, and I don't much care at this moment who I offend. I am, however, asking for feedback. I hope you'll read on and give me an honest response, because I'm really don't understand this.

OK, now here is what happened.

I opened the first email and just lost it. But before I go into the content of the email that upset me, let me ask my questions so you can be "chewing on them" and understand my angst.

1. Why do Conservative/Republicans feel it is OK to send anything, everything that is negative, insulting, opinionated, preachy as a broadcast to their whole mailing list? I don't get that from my Liberal Democrat friends and family. Well, one friend, but while his emails may be scathing, they are back in fact and usually referenced as to where you can follow up to verify his information. What I get from C/R is venomous, emotion-based, and lacking of facts to back the issue. Why? It is nasty, childish and is divisive to the American population!! (Example to follow shortly)

2. Why is it that people, every day people, not the big spam-generators, seem to feel that it is OK to send/forward trash that they wouldn't put a stamp on and put through the snail mail system? Is it because they wouldn't spend 41¢ on a stamp? Is it because it is easy to hit "forward" on the computer, but not worth the time it would take to send it any other way? Would they call me and read it to me over the phone or does that take too much of their valuable time and (in some cases) cost them too much for the call? Is it because the Internet makes it easy to be impersonal? BTW, I just went back through my old, deleted emails (boy, do I need to "empty the trash"!!), and all those are from the same people and every person has, at one time or another sent me something in these categories: anti-Democrat; anti-immigration; anti-gay; pro-Christianity (often with quotes like "Do unto others..." and "Love your brother...."!!!!!!!); filled with bigotry of every kind; and my mind right now is about to explode with "WTF" thoughts!!!!

I invite feedback from anyone on this. I request that you keep it clean. But be honest and open. I want to know .... WHY??? Do you forward political/racial/religious/sexual orientation charged emails? If so, why? Help me understand how that helps any cause.

Let me say that I do get mailings from my D/L friends and family that would probably be considered anti-Republican, etc., but those have been of a completely different composition. They are not hateful in nature. They offer websites, books, other references to check out. The are in the nature of fact giving and charge the reader/viewer to consider and be concerned, etc. I have forwarded some of these, but only when the history is verifiable and the information is based in fact. I don't send things like I got this morning.

Now, here is the content of the email that enraged me at first light today:

Teachers' nightmare

Hello,

My name be Ebonies Li Herenandez, an AfricanHispanicAsiatic-American girl who just got an award For being the best speler in class. I got 67% on the speling test and 30 points for being black, 5 points for not bringing drugs into class, 5 points for not bringing guns into class, and 5 points for not getting Pregnut during the cemester.

It be hard to beat a score of 120%. The white dude who sit next to me is McGee from the Bronx He got A 94% on the test but no extra points on a ccount of he hav e the same Skin color as the opressirs of 150 years ago.

Granny ax me to thank all Dimocrafts and Liberals for suporting Afermative action. You be showing da way to true equality.

I be gittin in medical skool nex an mabe I be yo doctor when Hillory take over da healtcare in dis cuntry

Does this person see this as a joke? It's not funny. At least not in my world.

Thus far, I've replied to the offensive emails, asking that I not receive more of same. Most of the time, I don't get a reply, but the garbage stops. However, it is not unusual to later receive something of a similar ilk. I don't know if these people are simply so insensitive that they don't understand that if I say, don't send me more anti-immigration material, it doesn't mean that it's OK to send something about not singing the National Anthem in Spanish. Or do they not care? Or do they mean to irritate me? Is it so important to be right that being considerate goes out the window?

Well, folks, I'm preparing to sending this out to my entire mailing list.

Dear family and friends,

I love getting email! I enjoy getting emails about family news, as well as humor, verified news and information, safety tips, signs of heart attack, etc. I like the fast turn-around we have with email. It makes planning reunions or other get-togethers and passing on life events and news so much easier than snail mail or phones. I hope to always have this convenience at our finger tips. Or something even better! I am writing with a request regarding email.

Because I am often faced with emails that I find offensive I am making the following request. Please take me off any mailings negatively regarding immigration, homosexuality, or bigotry in general. I find most of them lacking in validity and skewed with personal ideas not based in any rationale that I can understand or accept. I have a “live and let live” policy. I also have friends and family members who would fit into these rather ugly categories, if it were important to me to consider those characteristics. But I don’t consider that. I choose to have them in my life because of how they relate to me and generally to the rest of the world.
I’m not asking you to change your opinions, ideals, or values. I’m simply stating that I prefer to not receive these types of mail as I see them as an attempt to change mine. I consider them judgmental, at best, or hate mail, and I do not wish to receive them. I choose to not judge, lest I be judged.

I have tried to carefully consider the people to whom I email anything. I have tried to be aware of the general values of each person before I email something that I know might be unattractive to them. I may have erred, and if I have offended you with a raw joke or something in the past, please accept my sincere apology. If I should offend you after this, let me know so that I won’t do so again. This is exactly why I write this ... to let everyone know my preferences, since I have apparently not expressed them well enough.

I will admit I am intolerant of intolerance. I don’t like everyone, either, but I don’t choose who is in my life by those guidelines. I embrace people, including you, simply because I love them, and because they are good to me, complete my life in one way or another. When I receive such emails, I’m not swayed in favor of them; rather I’m angered toward attitudes that perpetrate and perpetuate such things.

I do not wish to be at odds with anyone to whom I mail this. And if you’ve not mailed such to me, thank you. I am simply informing people I care about and wish to have continued contact with of my preferences. I want to continue to hear about the ongoing life events and topics mentioned above. But please do me the honor of omitting me from those emails which are unpleasant. If this brings an end to friendly emails, that will be sad, but sad would be better than angry.

Enough is enough.

I'm tired of being told there is only one way to do things ... vote, live my life, love, forgive, accept, worship, even think. I am normally a very peaceful and peace-loving person. but ...

Enough is enough.

I believe in live and let live, so if your ways are different than mine, that is OK. As long as you respect my beliefs, morals, ethics, and way of life, and I do likewise toward you, there is no problem. My life center is being challenged by those who feel it is OK to intrude, uninvited, and push any of their ways into my face. I'm fairly quiet about my spiritual path. I believe deeply and sincerely in peace, both internal and external. And that is being pressed by this situation, by the people who thrust their opinions into my face via the ease of the Internet.


Bottom line .....
If you wouldn't print it, put it in an envelope, stamp it and mail it to me, don't email it to me. If you wouldn't pick up the phone and read it to me over the phone, don't email it to me.