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Message: [QUOTE="Flacusian, post: 1118800, member: 264"] Kudos to Etan Thomas for speaking out and weighing in on the issues at stake. Whether one agrees with Etan or not he is to be respected for speaking out and exercising the precious right of free speech which many have laid down their lives for so we as Americans can do so. When incidents such as this occur it seems to serve as a galvanizing event which brings out the passions of many Americans and illustrates how much further we need to go with respect to justice, equality, and tempering the tendency to immediately condemn and choose sides prior to all the facts being sorted out. Many of the posts here illustrate the "condemnation prior to investigation" way of thinking. Nothing is contributed in a positive fashion to the discourse when people resort to ad hominem attacks toward Etan Thomas. Patience and tolerance are two things in scarce supply in contemporary America. There are always 2 sides to every story and seldom is either side without some responsibility when an event like Ferguson takes place. What is disparaging is the phenomenon of how quickly people choose sides prior to having the facts and then they speak out in inflammatory fashion which only contributes to further polarization of us as Americans who share a common interest and heritage. Etan demonstrates that he was certainly prescient of the inevitable ridicule and debasing criticism which his speaking out would elicit when he wrote: "Now for the brave Twitter trolls who hide behind their keyboards, that's another story. Unfortunately, the same people who are quick to criticize athletes for not using their various positions as platforms to speak out on various current issues will be the same ones to bombard them with vicious attacks when they do. Some fans simply do not respect the opinions of athletes and view them as simple entertainment. Some want them to simply be seen and not heard -- to simply shut up and play. However, not everyone is affected by those "brave" social media trolls who lurk in the corners of blog comment sections and Twitter." Although I don't agree with some viewpoints which are espoused by others who come here and contribute, I respect their right to think differently than I do and I know that by criticizing them on a personal level I do nothing to substantiate why my viewpoint is different than theirs. This forum, this topic, this Country and this World would be a better place if people put as much effort in to building bridges between differing view points rather than erecting and reenforcing walls between them. [/QUOTE]

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