Prejudiced?

Heck, yeah. I'm prejudiced. So are you.

I often hear things like "Prejudice of any kind is wrong." But is that true?

I find out someone's been a child molester, but he's been "clean" for twenty years. I'm sorry. I still don't leave him alone with my kid. I'm prejudiced against him.

Prejudice without logical reason can be wrong. But if I have a legitimate reason for pre-judging someone, it isn't wrong.

I can't donate blood, because the Red Cross discriminates against me. I travel to Haiti from time to time, which eliminates me from their donor pool. No, I don't travel there for prurient pleasure, nor do I engage in risky behavior such as IV drug use. But it's just easier for the Red Cross to keep every Haiti-traveler out of the pool of possible donors because of the remote possibility that I might be carrying one of the diseases that is rampant in that country. No, it's not fair -- why, they could simply test my blood to determine that I'm disease-free. But that's not cost-effective. Much easier just to say No to me and others like me.

It's not only OKAY to be prejudiced or discriminatory about some things, it's necessary for existence. You are prejudiced against eating meat that's been sitting unrefrigerated, right? Or maybe you don't like broccoli, so you don't eat it -- you're discriminating against it.

It is far too easy to make sweeping statements about "prejudice" and sound rather righteous and tolerant. One of the most annoying things about the run-of-the-mill Left in this country is the fact that they truly believe that their beliefs are the only legitimate ones. Most right-wingers I know are not like that -- while they don't agree with leftys, they'll defend the lefty's right to believe what they do. Left-wingers don't often afford us that. Who's intolerant here?

Jeff at TrainOrphans is fairly left of center in his belief system... and occasionally it comes out in his posts or his photographs. I understand this. But there are things that he and I have in common -- particularly the intense value and appreciation of beautiful and visually-interesting things. He knows I'm fairly right of center, but he has blog-rolled me (and I him) because we do share some of the same passions and interests. AND I do think that he probably understands that I believe the way I believe (politically) and that it's a legitimate belief, just as his is (although he might disagree with it). Just because I'm a Conservative doesn't mean I'm a bad person.

Let's start arguing IDEAS instead of being nasty to PEOPLE, how about?