 |
[RC] Did I Understand You Correctly? - k s swigartCheryly Winter said: Truce....... On to something else. Truman is not a bad person, and I am sure in his original post did not mean it to sound the way people are taking it. It seems pretty clear that Truman is aware of the way that some people "are taking" his comment that it is worse for the horse to have died than the child; however, his response was not "you are taking this the wrong way. That isn't really what I meant." His response was, in essence, "I am obligated as an American to express this viewpoint, and it is inappropriate for you to take me to task for holding and expressing it even though you consider it to be an appalling position." If he didn't mean it the way some people are taking it (i.e. those people who have the common decency to take him at his word rather than making excuses for him by saying "I am sure he didn't really mean it." Personally, I consider it extremely rude to assume that people don't mean what they say.) and he was misunderstood, then all he had to do in response was to say, "I spoke without properly thinking, and I didn't mean that to come out the way it sounded." Truman is perfectly capable of making excuses for himself if he didn't really mean it that way. Since he didn't do so, it is only polite for me to presume that he really does think that it is better for a child to die in a riding accident than it is for a horse to. And I will continue to presume this until he tells me otherwise himself. And if he really does think that, then it is not totally inappropriate for that to color my judgement of his as a person. kat Orange County, Calif. p.s. I am still somewhat surprised (although I suppose I shouldn't be) by the number of people who are sufficiently conceited about their own power that they think horses have no say in what they do. Your horse is bigger, stronger, and faster than you are...he does exactly and only what he damned well pleases. Horses only comply with our own requests because they are good natured (granted, they have been genetically selected for this). What is "irresponsible" with respect to what we ask our horses is when we take advantage of their good natures to their detriment. It isn't because they have no say. It is because they have all the "say" in the world and comply with our requests anyway. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|