Of course you can say what you want, and vote as you’d like – and of course I fell for it when someone told me they took the word “gullible” out of the latest edition of Webster’s Dictionary…

Keep on rocking with the blog, Leo – and thanks for all the great insight and information that you’ve provided!

I find that when something gets me in a reactionary mindset it is helpful to simply reflect on my reaction and let it be what it is without, well, reacting (this is very hard to do some times). The reaction, the emotions (so rich and thick) and perceptions are only in my mind anyway until I manifest them. The truth is I simply can’t reject them (the emotions) nor whatever it is that sets me off. If I do reject them, I reject a part of myself and that is not helpful to having a accepting view of the world as it is and loving view of myself or my world. This does not mean I don’t care. It simlpy means that I accept the world as it is and try not to create reactionary actions that further ripple away from me in ways that only add to the suffering.

In Lojong practice (a slogan practice in Buddhism intended to discipline your thinking) there many wonderful slogans. Among them there is one that seems to always come to mind for me: “Abandon all hope of fruition.” I guess to me that means that the world will never be “fixed”. And that’s okay. My hope is simply not to “break” it even more.

While I bask in the glow of the RNC, I’ll leave you guys with some of my favorite links in the past week or so.

I still don’t get the joke….but it’s irrelevant now given how this discussion has evolved.

In the same way that Leo can speak say what he wants, so can readers. He understands and accepts/welcomes this otherwise he would not enable unmoderated comments. I respect that and for that reason I will not unsubscribe. There are thousands of non-political websites that have experienced this same issue.

Yes, there is a pseudo relationship here and each one has an opinion and each person has a right to express it knowing that not all with agree.

For some, politics is a highly-charged issue – it triggers emotions. For some it isn’t. Think about what would have happened if our ancestors didn’t have the emotional displeasure to break from England. Strong emotions are not necessarily a bad thing. What we do with those emotions is what matters.

Leo, thanks for letting us all share our viewpoints whether you agree or not. That is Zen (imo). There is much to learn from this experience.

I find it disrespectful and insulting to Leo (even though he came out and stated his comments were a joke) that people are willing to cast aside a relationship (and yes, I believe that reading like blog like this one does create a relationship between author and reader) merely on the basis of differences in political philosophy.

I mean, if you’ve read Leo’s blog for a while, you would have gotten a sense of his character. After getting to know him, after valuing his advice and experiences, you would be willing to cast it aside because of his political philosophy. Even though you know the character of the man himself, a label, such as Republican would be enough impetus to cast him aside? How Zen is that?

I am a small business owner and I know how petty and small minded people can become when it comes to politics. I create relationships with my customers. Our whole purpose is to help them solve problems, to answer questions, and to create an atmosphere of learning and growth. So we get to know our customers well and likewise.

During the last election, my landlord placed a Bush/Cheney sign in front of our building. I can’t tell you how many customers (people we had established good relationships with) told us that they were considering not conducting business with us again because of it. It was disappointing and disheartening to see how willing people were to put aside the relationships we had built because they thought we disagreed with them.

Good people belong to all political persuasions. They do. It is self-defeating to look at someone and judge them because of what party they belong to. So the next time you learn someone you like and admire (a friend, an acquaintance, your hair dresser, or a blog author) holds different political beliefs, try not to cast them aside. Look at the entirety of your relationship with them and remember that good people can disagree.

Peace.