I take exception to some of Navy's pics, but he is a far superior judge of football prowess than I am, or ever will be. And like he says, we don't get the first had chatter about a lot of the teams in the west, so we are making educated assumptions some times.
But, I second his message in the first part of his post. And let me add this, please. Seldom do any of us have a firsthand knowledge of what's going on in each other's lives. And when we do, we are bound by trust to keep private information private. Can't we all be considerate?
Think about it this way. I'm sure each of us have been faced with horrible news at times in our life. For instance, when I was told that my father had terminal lung cancer, I was in a daze for a couple of weeks. I probably pulled out in front of people, wandered into their lane, and maybe even ran a stop light or two. What this taught me was that the guy that just committed the same offense to me, may well be facing a similar crisis. I made up my mind that I would be tolerant of other's transgressions from that day forward. Am I going to ignor every tailhole that offends me, of course not. But I am going to at least slow down my judgement calls and overlook the minor things like petty rudeness, and in-attention. Because, at the end of the day, did it really matter anyway?
What I would hope everyone on this board would remember is that all of us have things going on in our everyday lives that stress us and shape the way we talk and correspond to others And yes, it takes place here on these boards as well. I've seen it more times than I care to remember, that members will take a strong stand and get a reaction from someone that is way out of proportion to what is called for. Then it degrades to personal attacks, inappropriate accusations, and just plain rudeness.
Another aspect that I hope all will consider is this. Many of us on here are professionals, business owners, or just are in the public eye in our jobs. When comments are made that are of a personal nature, they take on a life of their own. Suppose I made an accusation that John Doe was a child molestor. Once a comment like that is made, it can never be erased from anyone's memory. No matter how untrue, poor John Doe has that moniker associated with him forever. Think about this when you insinuate someone is a raciest. That follows them out into their world away from these boards. Things like this make darn good members decide that they can't risk the sullying of their reputation, so they leave the forum. Then we all lose.
I ask Rod to be quick to pull the trigger on any of us that is headed that way, especially if they have a history of crossing over to that type of behavior. And I ask each of you to do your part to admonish offenders in a manner that makes them understand that personally offensive attacks are not necessary, appreciated, nor tolerated.
Thank you all. DP