Looking For Nirvana in SA (or, where's a nice place to raise a liberal family?)

[Lee W.]

I'm a liberal sometimes, a moderate sometimes. I'm conservative only in trying to conserve natural land and water, native plants, wildlife, the human race, etc.

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by Merovee

That is not racism but partisanship.

Unless conservative is now a race?

I can also admit I grew up with racist attitudes from my family, friends, etc....it is something I have worked on and will continue. I am not going to sit here and deny that. Mexicans can be very racist even among their own ingroup, that is lighter skin Mexicans looking down on those with darker skin, or those with darker skin looking down on those with lighter skin. The best way to overcome racism is to realize it does exist, inside of each of us, then to move forward. Denying it does nothing.

I also recall the Eid Festival thread where some just refused to associate with Muslims, plain and clear, stated outright. Not sure if that is racism or not but it is what it is. There is always 'limits' I guess.

There are - and each will have their own. I don't discount 'em - because sometimes there are underlying reasons for their feelings/opinions. Many of those will soften with the passing of time. And my feelings regarding Muslims has more to do with an organized group as opposed to individuals. I've friends from many walks of life - including Muslims. It's just that at this point in my life, I'm not willing to "embrace" the concept of Muslims in general of being peaceful. And yeah - I know it's wrong on a given level, but it's still my issue at this point in time.

To me, it's not so much an issue of "accepting" racism, but rather choosing to not try to find it behind every thought contrary to my own.

[Merovee]

Originally Posted by TexasRedneck

It's just that at this point in my life, I'm not willing to "embrace" the concept of Muslims in general of being peaceful. And yeah - I know it's wrong on a given level, but it's still my issue at this point in time.

To me, it's not so much an issue of "accepting" racism, but rather choosing to not try to find it behind every thought contrary to my own.

Fair enough but for those who do see it it is also doubtful they are trying to look for it behind every thought. Sometimes it is just so blatant. Other times not so. But if someone points it out does not mean they are just making it up.

I will give one example, a dated one, of how things used to be, if they are the same now I do not know so please don't assume I am saying things are the same, but in one church I attended they had a private school.

In it one white student had been caught with marijuana and they kept it in house and dealt with it like that. When a Mexican was caught with it they called the cops.

I know it happened because a few years later when I was going there I got into some trouble over my anger issues. I was provoked but that is besides the point because I overreacted.

A Mexican teacher quickly drove me away and called my father warning him they called the police on me. My father showed up at the school and reminded them of their past hypocrisy to good effect.

Maybe it was wrong of my father to play the race card, maybe I deserved to be arrested, but in the end they backed off and gave me in-school suspension.

My father might have been looking for racism, maybe it was just more blatant in his generation that it was hard to ignore, but he has grown, as have I, and I am glad to hear you are too as far as Muslims.

No one is perfect and we are products of our culture and I have faith we can change it as we change ourselves. Good cheer!

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Mom2Feebs

It's funny, the biggest surprise revelation to me over the years has been that conservatives seem to actually do more for the environment in their everyday living than any liberals I ever lived near/with/around in my young adult life. I had no idea. Just plain ol' ordinary people recycling, composting, and reusing.

Just food for thought.

So many generalizations in one post.

How do you measure what people do everyday for the environment?
How is anybody supposed to know when I create a 200 page pdf instead of printing 200 pages?
That I open the windows in my house to save electricity?
That I xeriscaped my backyard with recycled rocks that I got on craiglist?
That I let the grass grow high during the summer so it will retain humidity and I don't have to water it as much?

As far as I know, your comment is just somebody's opinion,
unless you know of a way to quantify all the things that I mentioned.

Here's one that you can quantify
Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers - Feb. 2009 - ABC News


BTW,
Whether or not I pollute, doesn't change my distrust of corporations and my support for small businesses and minimum wage workers.

[Mom2Feebs]

Originally Posted by Dopo

So many generalizations in one post.

How do you measure what people do everyday for the environment?
How is anybody supposed to know when I create a 200 page pdf instead of printing 200 pages?
That I open the windows in my house to save electricity?
That I xeriscaped my backyard with recycled rocks that I got on craiglist?
That I let the grass grow high during the summer so it will retain humidity and I don't have to water it as much?

As far as I know, your comment is just somebody's opinion,
unless you know of a way to quantify all the things that I mentioned.

Here's one that you can quantify
Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers - Feb. 2009 - ABC News


BTW,
Whether or not I pollute, doesn't change my distrust of corporations and my support for small businesses and minimum wage workers.

Wow. What a bunch of blather.

I was just speaking of my personal observations over my 20 years of being on my own. My liberal friends couldn't care less if they recycled or reused, but my seriously Bible Beating MIL has her own compost pile in her backyard and has 1000 ways to reuse anything.

Too bad if you don't like or agree with my opinion. It's America. Get over it.

[Bo]

The liberal vs. conservative thing is too much of a hot-button issue to discuss in a friendly way and apparently too tempting for members here to resist pursuing in great depth. This thread detoured into political areas that are off-topic for a local forum more than halfway back to the beginning. Rather than delete more than a dozen posts or take any of the requested action on the many posts that were reported, I'm just closing the thread permanently. I would encourage the OP to start a new thread specifically asking about the items in the quote below, without any reference to the "liberal" tag, if she needs more advice on any of those items.

So, here's the wish list:

• Socially and/or politically liberal.
• Good schools (our sons are 4 and 6, one with some medical, not academic, special needs).
• Good grocers (Whole Foods, HEB Central Market).
• Interesting local shopping (boutiques, etc).
• Good restaurants (preferably not chains).
• Walkable (walk score 50+)
• Decent (30 min or less) commute to downtown SA.

Now I know from reading posts here that there are areas that do really well in some of these areas, but bomb in others. What we're looking for is a happy medium. If forced to choose, the schools, shopping and restaurants are most important because it's harder to compensate for not having these things than it is the others.

Finally, budget. We'll be selling a 3000sf, 4 bed, 4 bath home here in Oklahoma for about $300,000. Given that, I believe, property taxes are higher in Texas than they are in Oklahoma, we're looking to stay below $250K for a similarly sized home (although I know there's no state income tax, which makes this difference less important...still).

We're open to private schools if an area excels in every other area we're looking for, but home prices would need to be lower still to justify the expenditure.