Reply #80: Thank you. [View All]

My opinions might not be those of the perfect Democrat or hell, for all I know, they might not have anything in common with anyone else, but I spent years of denial, solitude, acceptance, and recovery on this subject and my opinions work for me. It's fine for some to follow that Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner creed, but I will not. I understand some people are innocent and some perceive degrees of guilt, but knowing how abuse of this kind can put the abused on autopilot for the rest of their lives keeps me from wanting anything to do with them.

I don't think there is such a thing as a "perfect" Democrat, or a perfect anything else for that matter. Personally, I think things would be pretty boring if we all thought exactly alike.

I agree with what you have to say about the effects of such abuse. From my perspective, though, I see it as kind of a cyclical thing - I guess that's one reason why it's easy(ier) for me to have some sort of empathy for people who can do these sorts of things, as it turns out that a good number of people who do these things are merely visiting on others what was done to them at one point. In other words, there's a duality of victim and perpetrator all rolled into one. That's not to condone the commission of a crime, but it adds a human element to things.

Thank you for having the courage to offer this post, varkam, and for prompting me to exorcise some of these demons. I've been here at DU for years as a lurker and I spend at least two minutes a day on this site, but I rarely contribute. Finally I feel invested here with this, the least anonymous of my anonymous posts, and whether I'm judged to be right or wrong, I feel comfortable enough to say, "this is me and this happened to me."

Thank you for having the courage to offer yours, as well as for your kind words. I don't think that anyone will judge you to be right or wrong, and certainly not me.