Quote:
Originally Posted by Botnst
Well if person B is a worse buttonhole than person A then let's give a pass to person A.
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Oh yeah, that's exactly what I said.
Oh well, I too wish all people would attain enlightenment, Christ consciousness, whatever, tomorrow. They won't. In the meantime we're stuck with our collective imperfect asses. Byrd's life was clearly checkered. My take is that he did more actual repentance than the likes of Thurmond and by a wide margin.
My dad used the N word through much of his adult life. In NM he had Latino guys working for him building houses and behind their backs referred to them as Mess'cans. Not one of the hot button slurs but there was clearly a sort of demeaning quality about it. OTOH, I never saw him mistreat anyone around race and one Latino guy worked for him for years.
He got better about it over the years, we would watch NBA games when Bill Russell was one of the commentators and he really dug him. Seemed to have an elevating effect on his thinking. As you know, my dad was a veteran of the Pacific Theater and I heard him use the J word more than once. OTOH, in the early 80s they hosted two Japanese tourist couples in their house for 3 days - they were part of a group that had been organized by a couple my parents were friendly with - a Am/Euro man and his Japanese wife, who he'd met in '45 during the occupation.
I was living nearby, I observed much of that and my dad seemed to genuinely enjoy himself.
So what am I supposed to do, lump my dad in with active KKKers and Strom Thurmond because he doesn't get a pass just because they are worse than him?