Cincinnati Salon: Clarification
Antoine is here! I dragged his jet-lagged ass all over downtown as soon as we got back from the airport: late lunch at Nicholson’s (the wood-smoked salmon with salad is lovely), a fast tour of local stores, and a whiplash tour of Carew Tower before we headed home via Fountain Square. And who did we see there, waving his arms like a madman at us, but Mr Joe Wessels?
Joe told me something funny that also kind of irked me, which is why I’m posting a clarification here. He said that someone - he didn’t say who, and I didn’t ask (I probably don’t know them anyway) - who he’d invited to the Cincinnati Salon had responded, “You know Jackie’s a conservative, right?”
I know it’s not unusual for people to think that one is either a left-wing statist or a right-wing conservative, but it still annoys me. My annoyance is my problem, I know. (Antoine, who never gets annoyed but is instead amused by such mistakes, is a good role model for me. Maybe someday I’ll start following his lead.) But just for the record: There is not one issue on which I take a conservative position. Not one.
Further, if you conclude from my supposed ‘conservativism’ that the Cincinnati Salon is going to consist of a lecture about how the streetcar system must be stopped at all costs, I promise you that you are mistaken. Come along on the night and find out for yourself. All viewpoints are welcome and, while I can’t promise to agree with everyone (or anyone!) in attendance, house rules are that you show respect to everyone. I’ll ask everyone to play the ball, not the man. Even conservatives are welcome!
Filed under: Life
I think that if people on the left think you on the right and people on the right think you are on the left, then you are doing fine. Epressing contempt for conservatives from time to time is always good, too. It puzzles people who think they have you pegged.
I think it is annoying not that someone thought you were a conservative, but that they said it in such a way that Joe was to be “warned off,” so he could disassociate from you with proper liberal disdain. How typical of the inclusive, open-minded left.
You know, NBS, I did make a comment about those who preach tolerance being some of the most intolerant people I’ve met. But in this case, I wasn’t there for the conversation and didn’t hear the tone of the remark, so I can’t fairly cast aspersions on the tolerance of the person who uttered it. Yes, though, I hear you. And some of my best friends are conservatives! (Well, not really.)