Posts by st ephen
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Another poll for you...
At Carisbrook on Saturday two guys carried a sign in front of our stand trying to gee up the crowd in support. The sign read "Good on ya, Veitchy!".
Out of about 1500 mainly pissed boofheads, they drew about three or four ragged cheers. (Not sure if everyone could read, though). -
Forget it Ian, that was 'dirty' with a small :-) . Look, I see where you're coming from because ( as you can tell from my own verbose and pompous posts) that's where I came from too, and I'd probably still be there if not for a few key influences along the way. What you (and sure, others too) really need to do is take on alternative world views without demanding that everyone accepts yours in return.
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St phen. I enjoyed your contribution.
Now I feel dirty. Ian - read Sacha's response twice and then enjoy this:
Some people think it's useful to debate issues on an intellectual level in a rational, unemotional way, dissecting all sides of the argument, drawing out subtle nuances etc etc. A high proportion of men fit into this category, plus certain occupational classes (lawyers, scientists) and perhaps people on the autism spectrum. It's a valid viewpoint given that a significant chunk of humanity favours this approach, but that doesn't make it the only or best way.
There are others for whom abstract intellectualised discussion of highly emotive topics is anathema. You don't have to trawl far through the PAS back pages to find issues that polarise these two groups: Assault. Rape. Abortion.
Since leaving uni and becoming a grown up, I have found that those people who hate sexist, racist rednecks also despise patronising, superior, "so-what-you're-trying to say..." pseudo-liberals. Funny that. Frankly, I never questioned my latent sexism until I was in a heterosexual relationship, never examined my underlying racism until I was in a mixed-race relationship, and will probably never to get to grips with the details of my homophobia unless my son comes out.
Suggest you listen more, talk less. Despite your tiresome efforts you haven't advanced anything beyond RB's original post ie. if the original account is basically true, there is no place to discuss "degree or chance" while Veitch is still spinning his way out of taking responsibility for anything. -
If we were really honest about ourselves I wonder how many of us would act differently.
I would suggest to you, that your need to ask that question says more about you, than it does about the people to whom you pose the question.
Jackie, I think you were exempt from that comment. You've already admitted an assault that neither you nor your victim saw fit to report to the police. We can probably assume that if your husband had turned his head at the wrong moment and you'd busted his nose, that would have been dealt with in-house too - after all, the intent was to "get a reaction", not to rearrange his face.
I don't know you. but the impression I get from your posts is that you are smart, funny and likeable, so I can't imagine that you would have kicked him viciously on the ground. Unless, I dunno, you were strung out after a long period of 70-hour weeks, had a mix of legal and illegal psychosis-inducing drugs in your system and were tormented by demons real and imagined. But you've made it pretty clear that after dropping hubby at the hospital you'd be straight down to hand yourself over to the police (probably even if your husband advised against it). And I think we can assume that Ian probably wouldn't. Veitch was set to host an Olympics - pretty much the pinnacle in his profession. If I translate that to my career, I can't honestly say I wouldn't try to make it all go away myself.
So I don't despise Veitch for misguidedly thinking he could put it behind him and get on with his life. I despise him for the assault itself (and for whatever self-medication took him way, way over the edge). And I despise him (a litle less) for not "manning up" when this hit the headlines - if it was me, I'd be a broken man and leaning heavily on my friends (thankfully Holmes wouldn't be one of them). I would appreciate my lawyer/management doing their professional job in laying out the options ("save my career" versus "do the right thing"), but want my friends to gently steer me in the right long-term direction.