A reminder to think before you speak - Israel and Palestine edition

[Scootaloo]

As we all sit, and watch news, read DU, listen to podcasts of the news, we all have feelings... and evidently very strong feelings, with regards to the ongoing crisis in Gaza. Some peopel have taken sides, others have declared how fed-up they are with both, others are confused, all are pretty vocal about it.

And that's good. We should all feel so strongly about all crises facing communities in the world. But i just want to put it out there...

say what you mean and mean what you say.

No, this isn't a "play nice, people" rejoinder - I'll leave that to the admins, if they feel they wish to pipe in. This is me asking that people think before they hit the "send" button.

Nadinbrzinski has declared to me - and undoubtedly others - that she is ditching DU over comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. While she and i don't see eye-to-eye (and didn't, in the PM exchange) I can't really argue with her point. Again; I'm not asking you to play nice. But if you want to make that comparison, make sure it is really what you want to say. is it the best you have? Is it the most accurate you've got? Or is it just knee-jerk invective and grabbing at low-hanging fruit? Present your rationale, build your case, stand by your position, and correct yourself if you cannot.

Same goes the other way. Do you really want to drag out the corpses from the Munich Olympics, to justify the corpses of today? is that how you really feel, or are you just trying to throw your "side's" dead into another person's face in hope that it'll silence them? do you really feel Palestinians have brought this misery and death on their own heads, or is it just an aegis you hide behind to deflect from an otherwise indefensible position? Again, present your rationale, build your case, stand by your position, and correct yourself if you cannot.

I don't ask that people hold hands and frolic together. I'm not going to explain that the person on the other end of the connection is a person. You all already know that. No, what I'm saying is, spare us al lthe useless "gotcha" comments. leave the bland, thoughtless comparisons and accusations at home. If you must use them, build them, make them worth the while. if you CAN'T do that, then they're not worth your while either.