I can agree that a feeling as though some things needs immediate and total attention is unwarranted. And there are much more effective ways to draw focus to an issue and attempt to fix it. However, I will continue to understand how people can have reached the point where they are overly reactive and their behavior unfortunately becomes detrimental as far as assisting in making a change for the better in those who need to be influenced.

I have been harassed, abused, and repeatedly provoked for years on end. After awhile I realized that my patience had slipped and I had begun to respond with knee-jerk defensiveness to anything which remotely resembled the triggers which were purposely abusing me. Even when I tried to remain calm, cool and collected I had years of stimuli working against me and I was no longer a Jedi Master; the force was weak around me. I know that any of the situations I’ve been through pale in comparison to what people of different ethnicities and colors live with in our country. One can do as much as possible to ignore the real issues and prejudices which run rampant in our country, but one can’t always ignore what is right in front of them. And even though someone might have a smile plastered on their face it doesn’t mean that they feel happy inside; it often means that they are doing their best to keep from falling apart and/or are trying to remain as close to topside as possible in circumstances which are attempting to pull them down.

I feel badly for anybody who becomes unhinged and responds automatically with hostility. My honest feeling is that there should not be any reason why anyone should have to feel threatened by any sort of innocuous request. But the facts still remain that on the one hand there are people who have been traumatized repeatedly throughout their lives, which is the real cause of their overreaction. And on the other hand there is absolutely no way for them to verify that there aren’t any ill intentions. Fear that the collected data is being used for bad purposes is a rational fear. In order to prevent the reaction, the trauma must be erased, eased or somehow mitigated. And, it wouldn’t hurt if the other side were able to be as transparent as possible to effectively show that there’s no cause for concern.

It’s sort of like the government, or Microsoft, or Apple or Google wanting to be trusted by anyone and everyone to gather information on individuals and make decisions on their behalf about what is in their best interest when we have no way of knowing whether their intentions are pure. We’ve seen evidence that they aren’t to be trusted and they don’t seem to be willing to share much information in the spirit of transparency. The Proper Cloth, on the other hand, I’d bet would be willing to be open about sharing more information about why they are asking for a person’s race, such as the wonderful analytical information researched in this article.

It’s easy to distance ourselves from the anger, outrage and passion that people feel for particular issues since we are not the ones who have to live their lives. It’s even easier for us to declare that someone else shouldn’t get so worked up because we don’t want to be associated with someone else’s anger and dramatic feelings. But I fully believe that if we were to have been abused or lived with some other sort of trauma burrowing a hole into our psyche, then it would be difficult for us to NOT be outraged and it would be hard for us to quell the boiling inside of us which had built up after such a long, continuous application of heat to our cauldrom.

As for parasites, my two dogs would tend to agree with you that they are up there with the top health issues. I’d always be cautious about removing focus from any other possibly equally important issues though. We tend to see things from the perspective and vantage point we are most familiar with. In other words, to a penguin and a polar bear, global warming and being able to maintain a cold enough environment to survive is of the utmost concern. Whereas to a lemur, which cannot tolerate the cold, the most important concern would be protecting the rainforests. In truth however, both issues might affect one another and they could go hand in hand. It’s hard to say for sure.

There could be some sort of benefit to parasites, whether it’s similar to decomposition or maintaining a balance in nature. Although man tends to screw up the entire balance as we act so arrogant and pretend as though the planet is ours with us being the predominant species. Which is far from the truth.

I wish you well and thank you for the civilized tête-à-tête.