{"id":1009,"date":"2006-02-20T16:32:40","date_gmt":"2006-02-20T16:32:40","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:09:35","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:09:35","slug":"tg_caught_this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=1009","title":{"rendered":"Tolerance and Cluelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

TG caught this in the paper today<\/a>, and I decided something in it made it eminently bloggable:<\/p>\n

Dear Amy:<\/b> My husband and I have lived in our quiet suburban Denver neighborhood for six years.<\/p>\n

\nAbout two years ago two young gay men moved in across the street. They’ve taken the ugliest, most run-down property in the neighborhood and remodeled and transformed it into the pride of the street.<\/p>\n

\nWhen it snows, they shovel out my car and are friendly, yet they mostly keep to themselves.<\/p>\n

\nLast month I went out to retrieve my newspaper and watched them kiss each other goodbye and embrace as they each left for work.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was appalled that they would do something like that in plain view of everyone.<\/p>\n

\nI was so disturbed that I spoke to my pastor. He encouraged me to draft a letter telling them how much we appreciate their help but asking them to refrain from that behavior in our neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\nI did so and asked a few of our neighbors to sign it.<\/p>\n

\nSince I delivered it, I’ve not been able to get them to even engage me in conversation.<\/p>\n

\nI offer greetings but they’ve chosen to ignore me.<\/p>\n

\nThey have made it so uncomfortable for the other neighbors and me by not even acknowledging our presence.<\/p>\n

\nHow would you suggest we open communications with them and explain to them that we value their contributions to the neighborhood but will not tolerate watching unnatural and disturbing behavior. – Wondering<\/p>\n

\nDear Wondering:<\/b> You’re lucky that these gentlemen merely choose to ignore you.<\/p>\n

\nYour neighbors could respond to your hospitality by hosting weekly outdoor “gay pride” barbecues and inviting all of their friends to enjoy life on our quiet suburban street.<\/p>\n

\nI can hold out hope that they will choose to do this, but I’m spiteful in that way. Your neighbors sound much more kind.<\/p>\n

\nIn your original petition to these men, you basically stated that while you value them when they are raising the standard on your street and shoveling your driveway, you loathe them for being who they are.<\/p>\n

\nThe only way to open communication with your neighbors would be to start by apologizing to them for engaging your other neighbors in your campaign. Because you don’t sound likely to apologize, you are just going to have to tolerate being ignored. <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And embarassed in print as well…somehow I keep thinking of the classic line in Blazing Saddles, where the elderly woman brings an apple pie to Bart, the black sheriff, after he’s saved the town from Mongo and then comes back to remind him to have the decency not to tell anyone she’s talked to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armed Liberal wateched a Denver homemaker get a lesson in tolerance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}