A contrary opinion...

Ah, what a blogger waits for. A contrary opinion. I appreciate this commentator so much. She was polite. logical, and unemotional. When I realized that my return comment was going to be too long, I thought I'd address it here.

From Tami...
He gets to have an opinion, based on his beliefs and research, just like you do. He is a celebrity, so he gets more face time. You just got to rant on about your beliefs, he gets to as well. That is what freedom is all about. If we make laws to keep people from expressing other beliefs than ours, as perhaps you want to and Palin wants to, then aren't we keeping people from free will, and discovering God's plan on their own?

I appreciate you taking time to read my blog and to comment on it as well. Most people do not do that.

I wholeheartedly agree that Mr. Damon should have an opinion and be free to express it just as I did. I do not believe in legislation that would limit the first amendment. I do however believe that individuals should display personal responsibility. Mr. Damon does get more face time by virtue of his celebrity status. Would it not have been of more value to his fans to encourage them in their own investigation of the candidates than to come out so biased. Granted my blog was biased, but I am not a celebrity. I also did encourage people to check things out for themselves and not to be influenced my Mr. Damon's opinion or even my own, but to make their own choices. There are a certain number of people who read my blog, most of whom are family or friends. There are others who read my blog because of the interests and opinions we share, and if we disagree we are able to debate it. I welcome that debate. The sound bytes proffered over and over again on tv and internet gave no opportunity for debate. Since I do not know Mr. Damon personally, I chose my blog as a forum to debate him. If he ever read it maybe he would leave me comments too. Oh, that would be fun!

The nature of my previous post was not so much aimed at Mr. Damon in particular, though it did come across that way. Who I was truly aiming at was Hollywood in general. I think it is dangerous to use your celebrity status to promote your own agenda in an incendiary way. Perhaps I should have posted a clip of the video. (I did look really hard for the commercial I talked about though). Mr. Damon was very emotional in his presentation as well as purposely insulting not only to Palin, but to anyone who holds a creationist theory of the universe.(A theory that despite what much of the world believes does have scientific credence.)

Instead of expounding on how little time this candidate has had in office, why not encourage people to look at what she has done during that time in office. Damon was not encouraging fans to do their own research. I think he probably has some idea as the weight of his opinion and chose to use it. What I intended to do with my post was to encourage people to think for themselves and do their own research and then maybe they can write about it in their own blogs, because the first amendment says they can.

Unlike the political climate in Hollywood. Any opinion that is not profoundly liberal and bordering on socialism is immediately attacked and career threatening. All Angela Jolie said was that she was examining both candidates(what we should all be doing) and she was subject to almost immediate backlash. I think the people of this country have given Hollywood too much influence over their lives and opinion formation. If after you have done some research and find that you hold the same opinion as Mr. Damon than at least you have come to that opinion on your own. My warning to my readers was not to accept that opinion at face value, but to question it. The bible itself encourages us to question things. Paul encouraged church members to test what they were being taught against what the scriptures had to say. Jesus encouraged people to question and test the motivation of the powers that be. Since Washington and Hollywood have become such close bedfellows we need to start questioning and testing both.

Ultimately it will also come down to trust and faith as well. We live in very scary times. I believe that God is in control though and regardless of which candidates I may like better, ultimately those who are in power are there because God allows them to be.