Name calling...

I was visiting a few blogs yesterday and was shocked (although by now I guess I shouldn't be...) at the incredible and awful name calling in them.

Name calling directed, of course, at me.

The prospective adoptive parent.

Names mostly so vicious and nasty that I can't even repeat them here.

(Apparently my earlier cry for compassion has not been heard across the blogosphere.)

Sigh.

Again, I guess that I shouldn't be all that surprised because we live in a world rife with name calling.

Politicians, the media, entertainment, talking heads, talk shows, blogs, etc. etc. etc.

The list goes on.

Instead of listening to each other and trying for compassion and understanding, the general attitude seems to be that you just call the person you don't agree with a nasty name...and then you move on. What a cop out.

"I don't like what you have to say. I don't agree with you. You're a jerk!"

End of discussion. Move on!

Listening to each other. Talking things through. Trying to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Agreeing to disagree. Really taking the time to let someone else express their opinions without interruption. Without argument. Without name calling. That takes time, patience and maturity.

Name calling seems to me to be the lazy person's immature way out.

I hope that we raise our child to be compassionate. To listen. To discuss. To be patient. To go against the tide of laziness and meanness to be a person of substance, maturity and the ability to see through someone else's eyes...to be kind.

So to all of those people out there who called me nasty names...

I choose not to participate in name calling.

(So there!)