On Jun 5, 1:27*am, "William Wixon" wrote:
"Curious Man" wrote in message

...



There seems to be a stereotype that "liberals" are the lazy sorts of
people who interrupt TV viewing only to go to soup lines, or smoke
harmful substances, whereas "conservatives" are hard working, self
reliant people who are very well off due to their own perseverance and
work ethic.

And yet, the few self proclaimed or suspected liberals and Obama
supporters of this newsgroup, seem to be very well off, accomplished
people, whereas many conservatives, while intelligent and interesting
people on many levels, are not exactly above that kind of level of
attainment.

If that is the case, is that perhaps the time to reconsider our
stereotypes?

Curious Man

i more or less recently became acquainted with a 71 y.o. man (i'm 49), he
served in the air force during korea, i'd consider him "conservative" or
"ultra conservative". he's catholic. *i collaborated with him on three
projects. *first was volunteer labor cleaning up a hillbilly shanty town
(that's what i called it) mess at a girl scout camp here. *the live-in
caretaker allowed a 10~15 year accumulation of junk to collect. *he and i,
then mostly i, cleaned it up. *second collaboration was picking up the
litter, junk, garbage along a local country road here. *third was a year
later continuation of that same litter/garbage pick up effort. *thing that
amazes me is he and i couldn't be more diametrically opposed in our
political beliefs but yet he and i can peacefully cooperate on projects
that, i believe, are to the betterment of our community. *i'm absolutely
amazed i can remain in his presence for more than 10 seconds considering
his, what for me are RADICAL right wing opinions. *it continues to amaze me.
my blood turns to ice the second he starts in on his political views,
thankfully i've been able to avoid having to endure listening to them very
often or for very long. *i have a continuous fear that somewhere along the
line he's going to go off on obama or liberals or "socialists" and i
absolutely will not be able to tolerate it and my relationship with him will
come to a screeching halt. *that would be a pity. *i do enjoy hanging out
with him, bull****ting with him, working on those projects together with
him. *thing i find surprising is there are areas of overlap between
"liberals" and conservatives. *"caring for the planet", bettering our
community, respecting nature and local history, preserving open
space/farmland. *he's pretty much the driving force behind a local movement
to stop a housing development that's slated to go on historic farmland here,
that's the part where much to my surprise, liberal and conservative overlap.
i'd assume you wouldn't ordinarily think conservatives would oppose a
housing development, but this is open historic farmland. *i'd think
conservatives would be staunch "landowner's rights" proponents. *he's very
active in the community, on the library board, member of the historical
society, constantly doing volunteer work for the community. *an inspiration
to this "liberal" "socialist".
i was thinking the volume is turned up here on usenet discussion groups.
probably out there in the world "liberals" and conservatives cooperate on
all sorts of worthy projects, projects that get little or no press. *i'd
like to hope so at least.

b.w.

First of all let me thank you for walking the talk in relation to
community support...most people can only talk and suddenly disappear
when the work needs to be done.

Most conservatives will back business unless it negatively affects
their pocketbook. In respect to the historic farmland, is it military
related..which with his military experience he would now attach an
emotional significance.

From the description of the community, it may be that this person is
leading the charge in community activies for the social position that
it gives him in the community versus doing because it should be done.
The real question is "Does he get his hands dirty?" versus spending
hours on committees and meetings where he is the center of attention.

And a piece of advice...if you spend much time around him the opposing
political views will surface and clash sooner or later...and with his
visibility in the community, he may likely use it to negatively
influence others around you about you. Plan for it and be prepared
before it happens.

TMT