Fair enough, Bricker. I’ll take a “boo” over a “how dare you” any day.
I’m not going to take back my statement any more than than the amendment I made about the degree of rudeness being up for debate (which I appreciate your giving me the chance to do, by the way). Living through a terrible tragedy does not excuse (what I view as) rudeness during such an event. I say “If you ain’t got nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all.” Not saying anything (zipping the lip, no matter how heroic the lip) is (to me) the appropriate response. I know I’ve explained what I thought Gere was saying, which I thought was utterly nonoffensive. I never took him to mean the perpetrators need compassion. But that’s my view and perhaps my biased ear.
There is another “boo” thread going on in GD or GQ (I can never remember), FWIW. It’s about booing the Clintons, but there are some tangential discussions there.
What Richard Gere said was peaceful in theme but I question whether it was compassionate. The important distinction is that while these people could absolutely use some compassion and peace, that is very different from asking them to showcompassion towards the people that brought this enduring pain intentionally into their lives. That is what I perceivedto be Mr. Gere’s wish. And I find that horrendously inappropriate.
Maybe it’s just me but I’m more than willing to give them a whole stack of hall passes. I think they have the right to *feel anyway they want to right now and if they choose to express their feelings right now by booing, I just don’t feel right judging its correctness. I can’t possibly begin to comprehend what these people are feeling right now.
Mr. Gere can express his views wherever and whenever he wants, and get them in print if he so desires. But this event really was the Firefighters’ and Police Officers’ night; a chance to give them something back for all the work and sacrifices that they have made. It does not seem to me to be an appropriate forum for Richard Gere to do what he did (and I watched). Gere is smart enough to know what the reaction was going to be. Basically, he rained on the parade. Therefore, I believe his actions were selfish. This was not the time to show off his supposed moral superiority. He has 364 other days of the year to do that. But now it’s water under the bridge. Richard Gere is Richard Gere. Hillary Clinton was booed as well.
Maybe if he had said the same thing with more carefully chosen words there wouldn’t have been such a negative reaction. I mean, who doesn’t stand for a principle against blind revenge?
And if those firefighters and policemen are in actuality so damned Pro-Killing-People-for-Revenge-Only, will then fuck them. They should be fired.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
A thousand strong leaders can’t lead a people who don’t want to be lead. It takes the acceptance of the masses to make an idea fly, not the ramming-down-the-throats of it by an authority figure. That’s why drunk driving deaths are still common: No massive public acceptance of the notion that driving after you’ve ‘only had a few’ is wrong. MADD can lead all they want, but leaders without followers are just screaming at the wind.
While I respect Gere’s religion and right to say whatever he thinks, that was not the time.
I keep getting this impression of “I told you so, nanner, nanner, nanner see what happens” message from some people (not here on the board). That enrages me.
Whenever the people working at ground zero stir up a pile of dust, they are BREATHING DEAD PEOPLE! They KNOW that. Think about it. They are overwrought, tired, pissed, grieving, and fucking crazy over it.
Cut them some slack. They can boo whomever they fucking want, as far as I’m concerned.
Who knows how many rescue workers will end up psycho, or commit suicide in the next few years. (Not to mention family and friends of the victims).
If out of nothing but simple respect, save the self-righteous homilies and preaching for a while.