I’ve acquired a new current events adversary through my son’s marriage. His lovely bride’s father is a tenured professor in Poli Sci. At the wedding reception he recommended a book that documents how the Bush/Cheney administration is subverting the constitution. Out of courtesy, I bought the book. It was unreadable, so I stopped after about three chapters, and by email told my new reading companion the same, giving him specific reasons that I found the book third rate. This resulted in a lengthy email exposition from him making the case against the Iraq War. It included the usual antiwar dogma, from neocon beginnings to utter failure today. I usually love debate (I’m a lawyer who practiced at the same NY firm as Glen), but I really don’t want to jeopardize a new relationship by pouncing on his “facts”. We’ve spent wonderful times with the new family. At the same time, staying silent in the face of gibberish is difficult for me.
I am thinking of suggesting a blog debate, where we could each set out our views at length. If done with civillity and respect, it could potentially strengthen our relationship while allowing each of us the freedom of disagreeing. Any thoughts?
