Practice what you preach

The overwhelming urge to let my thoughts spill all over the place is here once again. More on that at My ever so slightly distorted point of view. I'll admit that using KDLG to attract someone to my blog may seem pretty low. Fact of the matter is that if I wanted only my friends to read it, only my friends would have the address.

Ok.  Today the reason for letting it all fly loose is because I'm bothered again by Kathy McLinn's comment saying that I'm 'Anon/DGR.'  I fail to see the connection between anon and myself other than maybe she thinks I'm just trying to pump up my comment numbers.  If this were the case, then I would probably have a blog that's completely peppered with comments.  It is not.  In any case, anonymous commenting has been disabled to prevent this from happening anymore.

Now I'll point out for the second time that I wrote Something more important than Pebble Mine before Kathy McLinn's second comment.  While I may seem like a hypocrite for writing that after saying that the Pebble Mine rally sounds boring, that's all I did was say that it sounds boring.  I didn't do any name calling.  I don't know who was at the meeting.  I don't know what went on other than what Kathy McLinn explained to me.  When I clicked on post comment after saying the rally sounded boring, I had one of those 'oh no, what did I just do' moments because revitalization of Yupik culture from Kathy's comment jumped right off the screen and hit me in the face.  Everyone has a 'what did I just do' moment.  We're human, right? More on what I think is going on with our native culture at Old ways vs. new ways. Some of my first thoughts on Pebble Mine can be found here.

Humans are usually entitled to their own way of thinking, and can make their own decisions based on the way they think.  In most cases, an individual does something based on the way they think, regardless of what others think.  That's what makes each individual human a unique one.  I think the way I think, and others think the way they think.  I do what I want, they do what they want.  If this were not the case, then we would all be robots and nothing more.  Some countries keep their residents as nothing more than prisoners.  You see cults where people get brainwashed into being robots, but in my opinion- the ones that fall victim have very weak minds.  But we are not there.  We are here.

Today, I am bothered by two things:

1. That the place we live in is full of people that make assumptions.  This may be ok when buying a lottery ticket, or a stack of pull-tabs.  This is not ok when it comes to judging someone based on nothing more than assumption.  Usually, facts are needed to make these decisions (judging someone).  Otherwise, it's just a guessing game.  Assumptions and gossip seem to go hand in hand around here.
2. People fail to see the real facts, based simply on where the facts are coming from.  Apparently, you need to be on a 'side' to be believed.  This is horrible.  This shows me that some people are incapable of making decisions based only on facts.  To them, the facts have to be coming from one side or the other.  Brainwashed comes to mind again.

People that make assumptions usually don't do it just once.  In my mind, that is the way they think all the time.  I am bothered by people that just seem to 'know' with nothing to back it up.

Let's shift gears a little and think about our children.  Their future relies very heavily on two things.  (Remember, everything I say is just what's going on in my head)

1. Rock-solid parenting skills.  No one plays a more important role in steering a young one down the right path than the parent.
2. Education.  Teachers.  They dedicate a pretty good portion of their lives to going through the proper training to become who they are.  Teaching is their passion, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

Is it ok for a teacher to make assumptions, with no facts as back up?  Is it ok, because they are teachers and have childrens best interests in mind?  Are they right only because they are teachers?  While I doubt that a teacher that made assumptions on a regular basis would pass this horrible habit on to students, I have to wonder.  Whether for good, or for bad- children learn from what they see.
  
Kathy McLinn, when you said I think your comments are a poor reflection on you, not anyone else, you forgot to think about how your own comment will reflect on yourself.

p.s. me calling pebble mine opposition liars was an effort to raise awareness on the pebble issue- i do not want pebble mine.  also- i am not a 'paid' pebble partnership pawn as someone else pointed out.