All BBS Members Please Read

Being inspired by a thread by ROXRAN, I felt like I needed to say some things to get off my chest:

The last couple of days have been some of the most trying of my entire life. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like if I lost someone close to me in this tragedy. You see I have been lucky--I never have had anybody close to me dying in my 28 years on this planet. My grandfather, my dad's father, died when I was 4, so I was too young to realize it. His widow, my granny, is now in a nursing home with dementia and it has taken my family a long time to come to terms with the fact that she will never be able to live by herself again, know who we are, really know who she is, etc. When we finally made that realization it devastated every one of us, especially my father who's an only child.

What happened on Tuesday is something that we'll haunt us for the rest of our lives. It still seems so unreal that this could happen. Yes, we all know that our nation is not well-liked by other nations and individuals, but we never dreamed something like this would come out of this hatred.

Last night was my breaking point. I have sat back and mainly read the posts the last couple of days electing not to comment because I'm not the type to get into heated debates. However, for whatever reason I became overwhelmed with emotion. I am aware that they are people in this country and on this BBS who do not feel the same way on things that I do. That's what makes our country so great and unique. You can better believe that people in other parts of the world wish that they had this privilege.

This website is the best website that I have ever seen. We should all thank Clutch and the people that help him for giving us an outlet where we can share our views. In the last couple of days, we have come together as a family. Yes, we have had our disagreements like all families, but the love that has been shown has been remarkable. I know that I may be #1 on many people's list as their most unfavorite poster or on their ignore list, but I would be upset if something happened to them. Although we have different views, beliefs, and ideals, it is our love of the Houston Rockets that has brought us together.

If I have ever offended anyone on this BBS, then I apologize. Just realize that people get emotional and to charge things to their head and not to their heart.

I will try to do a better job of being more tolerant of posters who have different or radical viewpoints than mine. At the same time, I will continue to post responses that may contradict things that I have said above if I feel that I have been backed into a corner by someone unreasonably.

I didn't mean to go on and on, but I just wanted to let everybody know that in times like these--our nation needs to stick together and there is nothing that I wouldn't do (as long as it's a reasonable request) for you guys.

Thanks,

Jon aka Manny Ramirez

 

Thanks for the kind words, guys. It's like Crisco said, I do wear my heart on my sleeve sometimes. Participating in this forum has helped me become more tolerant and understanding of other people's opinions. I'll admit that I'll still relapse from time to time, but in the grand scheme of things, is it really worth it to have people hate you? It's not to me.