in which I send you somewhere else...

[lagilman]

I have a lot of opinions, but I also know that I tend to get...impassioned about them. So often as not I simply point to something and say "this, this bothers me, does it bother you?"

Thankfully, in times like that, Jim Hines often comes through with a reasoned, dispassionate discussion that nails that bother, exactly.

...this is a Muslim country. It is also a Jewish country. It is an atheist country. It is a country of Quakers and a country of Mormons, a country of Catholics and a country of Baptists. (Even, I have no doubt, a country of Jedi.) from "An Open Letter to Elizabeth Moon."


EtA: and I finally managed to sum up & boil down my reaction, in a response to someone elsewhere: E pluribus unum is "Out of many, one," not "out of many, the same."


[aside: I like Elizabeth a great deal, and I respect her, too, thereby proving that yes you can wildly disagree and still think someone's not Teh Debil's Own]

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the pointer. I was...disturbed by LJ post that prompted Jim's. Dialog is good. It opens hearts and minds.

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to pass on reading Elizabeth Moon's post that triggered the letter. I'm getting the gist of it from the reactions it prompted.

But yes, out of many, one.

BTW, and you may pass this on to Jim, it is also a country of agnostics (even some militant agnostics), pagans, heathens, druids, African Diaspora religions, and witches.

[lagilman]

Actually, I think that people should read Elizabeth's essay. Not only is the counterargument incomplete without seeing the source material, she makes some good and valid points in it. It's just where she went with those points that disappointed me.



As for Jim's essay -- I'm not his editor, I don't give after-the-fact commentary. Besides, if you start listing everyone, you not only lose the flow of the passage, but your readers start to roll their eyes and say "yeah, yeah, we know, we get it." Bad writing is a greater sign that not mentioning every single faction represented...