A little something I am thinking:

“I try not to judge groups by their people or people by their groups.” I just said this to a friend and its very true. There are churches who have said insulting things about me with members who are the best people ever. I have know organizations that did great things for people and the world led by A$$ holes. For better or worse I do judge both people and organizations by their actions. However it is important to remember that people are more then the groups they belong to and groups are made of all types of people.

I have been a pagan with evangelical Christian friends. They went to churches that said I was evil, but we were still pals. I am a liberal in a conservative area, and yet know that both “we” and “they” are good people under it all. Yes I disagree with both political parties on some issues, but most everyone I know belongs to one or the other, including most all of my friends. They are still my friends, even though my thoughts about their parties are sometimes less then friendly.

My sense of humor is such that I often come down hard on organizations that I dislike. I assume that any members know I don’t mean for them to take it personally. In the same way that I assume that they don’t mean it as a personal attack when they attack (or agree with an attack, or don’t defend me from an attack) on a group I belong to. If you do take what I say personally then I have to assume you mean the reverse personally, That could get ugly really quickly.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that a person who belongs to a group that seems to hate me, can still be my friend. Yes, that is reversible there are people I want nothing to do with who are part of groups that in my humble opinion do “good work”. However I would rather focus on the positive. I can be friends with people, even if they belong to groups that I don’t like. I would like to assume we can all do that.

So the lessons for today, “keep a sense of humor”, “take it all with a grain of salt” and “try not to judge groups by their people or people by their groups”