Letter: Narcissism at the heart of protests

On one of my favorite communal Web sites this past week, I engaged a discussion on “narcissistic people.” I started this conversation because of the contemptuous, disdainful conversations I hear every day. It is in the media, papers, on the Web and it is seen in every corner that you look these day. There is this obsession with “me, and mine” and a total lack of empathy or unity. There is no empathy for those who have less or think different. There is no desire to extend, assist, and look past ones own needs. I find this sad, hurtful, and very concerning.
So, with that statement, I would like to address a few things. Melissa, I pity any kind of prejudice against anyone. Prejudice just means limited, confined thinking. I personally embrace the conversation of why not let children expand, learn, embrace and make up their own minds? To answer your question on how I raised my kids? That is, I did my best. I tried to give them as much information and education as I could on all levels, so they could choose what was right for them. I did not want to raise my kids with cookie cutter thought of my world. For their world was, and will be, different. My kids went to a school where they were required to do some type of community service every week, it was part of their grade. They were required to work with the homeless, soup kitchens, my daughter even worked with Catholic nuns (though my kids did not go to a Catholic school). The wonderful principal demanded them to use their minds and their hearts. They also had impressed upon them to use their minds, hearts and to expand their education of humanity.
There is also the question of freedom of speech here. For those of you who have bashed our editor for my letters; you should know that at times I have written three and four letters a week, and on many topics. Is it not my right? Is it not the right of all people to raise their voice and concern about what we see and want to change? I have attempted to make my questions clear, and in an effort to provoke thought and conversation. Yes, when it comes to the local part, I have been hard-hitting, and it got nothing. No answers, and no one seems to care. I ask these things not because I am trying to be a pain in the neck. I ask them and push on them because I truly care. I am passionate about what affects my world and the world of those around me. I am passionate about children, and what they are being taught, (or not taught) and what they are going to inherit from us as a people. I am not just talking about debt, I am talking about the ability to expand past where thought is today. I believe with all my heart, by asking the questions, that people expand, grow and become more … or one can be, hopeful.
No, Melissa, I have never, and will never live in the fear of violence. I have lived in areas where people got shot for wearing the wrong color, and where you dare not give eye contact because it could be taken as a threat. I carried a gun to a my last job site in Albuquerque, due to three murders in the same area where I was building houses. I have a child who was shot at on two different occasions, just because he was white. I choose to work from my heart and ever-curious mind. I will never embrace teaching limitations of thought and ideas. If that would have happened when I was growing up, we would have never seen man walk on the moon. The removal of limited thought, of extremes is what I embrace. Between the shades of black and white are many shades of gray. That is where I choose to be. Somewhere in there is balance, and that is what I embrace the most, is balance for all people. Not just those who stand at the edges of extreme.
Michelle Hale
Meeker