Agree to Disagree

I read a lot of blogs. Most of them are written by parents, or fellow martial artists. But one of them is written by a conservative radio host named Matt Walsh. Here is his blog: http://themattwalshblog.com/.

Today I decided to send him an email.

I disagree with almost everything he says. I disagree with almost every comment his readers make. Yet I read this blog every day, and I love it. And not because it makes me angry. Because it makes me think.

Dear Matt,

I imagine I am not your typical reader. I am a democrat and an atheist. I am for gay marriage, pro-choice and for reasonable gun control. The only posts of yours that I ever agree with are the parenting ones. (I am a mother to a wonderful 6 year old girl.) 

Even with all those strikes against me I want you to know that I love your blog. First of all, because you are a talented and extremely entertaining writer. And second, I love to read the comments. 

I am not being sarcastic. You may think that this is going to be one of those letters where I say something like "hearing your idiotic beliefs and those of your fan base, have only reaffirmed how right I am.in my own" .And yeah, that does happen occasionally. 

The comments from the angry, ignorant people who only want a venue to spew hate and insults...yeah, those I ignore. But your blog also includes hundreds of comments from intelligent people who are able to maturely, respectfully and passionately explain why they believe what they do. And I really enjoy reading these. 

One of the things that separates being an adult from being a child is the ability to disagree in a reasonable and respectful manner, without hair pulling, biting or screaming out horrid insults. ("YOU are a poop head!"). This is a hallmark of maturity. So while it is true, some of your readers have not yet learned this skill, a good many of them have,

I do not believe in God. But I have enjoyed reading the comments of many of your readers who do, not the ones who just blindly quote the bible, but the ones who can explain honestly and passionately why they truly feel that Jesus is the only path. The ones who have clearly given it a whole lot of thought. And while I disagree with their way of life, I respect their commitment to it and I would hope (perhaps naively, but I hope it nonetheless) that they would respect mine as well. And understand that I have given my own beliefs just as much thought as they have. 

I do not believe teachers should ever have guns in their classrooms. I would not ever keep a gun in my home and believe that all parents who own a gun have a responsibility to keep it locked away from all children. But I will admit that I did not grow up with guns.and do not know anything at all about gun safety. I have read comments from many of your readers who have reasonable views on moderate gun control, who are good, responsible parents who teach their children how to properly handle guns. Some are former military, or police officers, who were able to explain a lot about gun safety and I will admit they changed my own views a bit with regard to having a trained, armed guard inside our public schools.

I will always be pro-choice, will always be for gay marriage, and barring God himself showing up in my living room, will probably always be an atheist. But that is ok. Human beings are meant to be different. We can learn a lot if we just listen to each other. We do not have to all share the same beliefs, or read from the same book. We can disagree and still be friends. Or at least most of us can. The mature ones. 

So thank you, Matt. Reading your blog, and its comments, daily tests my ability to be open minded. It helps me work on understanding and accepting those who do not believe what I believe. It helps me work on my arguments for why I do. And when the immature people who have not yet learned how to respect others start their yelling, it reminds me of how I do NOT want to treat others. So even they are good for something.

Keep writing. I will keep disagreeing with you and enjoying every minute of it.

Sincerely,

Jennifer