{"id":6658,"date":"2016-09-13T05:59:19","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T09:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6658"},"modified":"2016-09-13T05:59:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T09:59:19","slug":"stabbing-at-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6658","title":{"rendered":"stabbing at unity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-1473090826765-d54ac2fdc1eb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday, before a friendly audience, Hillary Clinton made the following remark:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo just be grossly generalist, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call \u2018the basket of deplorables.\u2019 Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Clinton apologized the next day.<\/p>\n

Before getting to the point of today\u2019s post, allow me a few initial disclaimers, as this post is about far more than any current candidate\u2026<\/p>\n

First\u2026 please don\u2019t use the above as an indictment against Clinton; we have all said inappropriate things. We are capable of saying more.<\/p>\n

Next\u2026 please don\u2019t use the above as support for Donald Trump; he, too (geesh),<\/em> has said multiple inappropriate things. He is capable of saying more.<\/p>\n

Lastly\u2026 please don\u2019t perceive the above as an endorsement for any (note: there will be no forthcoming Intramuralist endorsements).<\/em> Again, this is not about the candidates; this is about us and whether we truly desire unity more than division.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to take a stab at extending the call for unity, that so many seemed to embrace a mere two days ago. On the anniversary of 9\/11, there was minimal focus on what divides us. Rather, there was the profound realization that even as evil attempted to destroy us fifteen years ago \u2014 and continues to attempt to pierce us today \u2014 the \u201cunited\u201d is still in our states and the flag is still there.<\/p>\n

So how do we keep it going? How do we make it last? How do we embrace unity more than feed division? As one thoughtful friend commented, \u201cWe can overcome the differences in our country if we only understood that we are stronger together\u201d<\/em>\u2026 if, we are united.<\/em><\/p>\n

So let\u2019s go out on a pretty big limb here and take that stab\u2026<\/p>\n

What if we all agreed to give up one thing?<\/p>\n

Let me first provide a little logic\u2026 The aforementioned call-out of these extreme people out there, these \u201cbaskets of deplorables\u201d \u2014 the racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic people \u2014 is not solely one person’s\u00a0assessment or belief; far more have chimed in on all sides of the equation. Let\u2019s add the other oft-identified extremists\u2026 the Marxists and Communists\u2026 the feminists, meninists, and yes, even Leninists. Don\u2019t forget the deniers of freedom or the growing Christianophobic. Forget not either the narcissistic; they can be pretty extreme, too.<\/p>\n

The point is that\u00a0while we all may agree that extreme groups exist, we may not all agree on who exactly is how extreme.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0thus have no intention of denying the existence of the above people groups. I also believe we should never\u00a0quit interacting with and respectfully listening\u00a0and learning from\u00a0one another. I believe, though, there\u2019s something bigger we could give up.<\/p>\n

What if we each agreed that there is no such thing as a person who is deplorable?<\/em><\/p>\n

What if we each gave up\u00a0our so-called “basket”?<\/p>\n

We each put different, perceived people\u00a0groups into our self-crafted, extremist baskets. We allow ourselves to then justify that we are somehow better or wiser or far more righteous than entire groups of people… “they,<\/strong> of course, are the extreme ones.”<\/em>\u00a0We then write them\u00a0off, effectively elevating self. We diss the legitimacy of those who think differently. They oppose and offend us \u2014 so we put them in our “basket.” We judge them by convincing ourselves that\u00a0they are actually deplorable.<\/p>\n

When people who do not think or act like we do, can we give up thinking the worst of them?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not really the question; the question is whether we want more unity.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, before a friendly audience, Hillary Clinton made the following remark: \u201cTo just be grossly generalist, you can put half of Trump supporters into what I call \u2018the basket of deplorables.\u2019 Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, you name it.\u201d Clinton apologized the next day. Before getting to the point of today\u2019s post, allow me … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “stabbing at unity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[605],"class_list":["post-6658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","tag-basket-of-deplorables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6658"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6669,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6658\/revisions\/6669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}