Thursday, February 7, 2008

This Week's Quote

I found this provocative and worth thinking about, rather than dismissing it......polarization around various causes does not work and leads, often, to violence....


"Bleeding-heart liberals could accomplish far more if they reached out to build common cause with bleeding-heart conservatives."

- Columnist Nicholas Kristof, in an article titled, "Evangelicals a Liberal Can Love." One example he cites: "In parts of Africa where bandits and warlords shoot or rape anything that moves, you often find that the only groups still operating are Doctors Without Borders and religious aid workers: crazy doctors and crazy Christians."(Source: The New York Times)

4 comments:

Ed said...

But do the crazy doctors and crazy christians get along?

Anyway, it's hard to feel like there can be any common ground with conservatives after listening to Romney's concession speech today. He went on and on about how repthuglicans (yes, I know name calling doesn't help build bridges, but I'm pissed) need to band together against those "cut-and-run-democrats" who want to "surrender to the terrorists." Uff da.

poodledoc said...

Well, in my opinion, Romney doesn't have a heart that really feels, at least in public life. He's on the fringe and he knows it, at some level. What this guy is really talking about is the vast middle ground, who are open to building bridges, who realize somethings are very, very wrong. They may be very different in poltical beliefs but these kind of "strange bedfellows" are what we will need to survive as a species.

gartenfische said...

I like Kristof very much. He has done some incredible work.

I didn't know there were bleeding heart conservatives, but I agree, working together is far better than fighting against.

This does remind me of how some evangelicals are turning toward environmentalism out of respect for God's creation.

poodledoc said...

Garten: Well put. And reminds me of diverse groups such as environmentalist and the NRA, for example, teaming up to preserve wild lands. Differnet reasons, same goals.