“Why”?  “Why, Butch Alexander, do you have a blog”?  “Who are you anyway”?  “Do you think that you are special”?  “Why do you do this”?

Good questions, dear readers.  Worthy questions for certain.  No, I don’t think I’m important, or special, or smarter than the next guy.  I’m just an average guy.  An Arkansas public school teacher and coach recently retired.  Retired as of June, 2014 after spending most of the passed forty years doing just that.  Teaching and coaching.  So, now I’m retired and I have no one to teach.  No class to prepare for.  No tests to grade.  No pencil sharpener to empty.  Yes, even in this technological era, students still need an occasional pencil.  So………..maybe, I’m looking for a way to continue doing what I love.  “OK, ”  you’re wondering, “you love to empty the pencil sharpener”?  No, I don’t love emptying the pencil sharpener.  In fact, I detest those messy contraptions all full of shavings, wood dust, graphite filings.  What I love, is making people think.  Examine.  Question.  And, after all of that use of their brain, to finally commit to something.  The best teachers you see, at least in my mind, aren’t those people with a vast knowledge of a particular subject who repeat facts and then expect their students to memorize those facts and then pass tests to prove the students have mastery of that material.  No, not at all.  The best teachers, the very, very best teachers are those people who motivate others to think, and then to ask, “Why”?

So, do you like sports?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Not everyone likes sports.  Not everyone should like sports.  It may or not be your thing.  I’m an athlete and a coach, but I like lots of other things as well.  Good music for one.  So maybe, you’re a musician who has no use for sports.  Just hang with me on this one.  Whether you like sports or not is not as important as this one thing.  “What one thing”?  This one thing.  Most sports involve offense and defense.  Or defense and offense, if you prefer. “What is offense and what is defense”, you ask?  As a teacher, my standard answer to such questions was, “Here is a dictionary.  Look it up”!  So, let’s look it up.

Offense:  a noun meaning any cause of anger or displease;  insult;  injury;  assault.

Offensive:  an adverb meaning causing displeasure;  annoying;  disagreeable;  disgusting;  used in attack.

Offend:  A verb meaning to displease or make angry;  molest or annoy;  pain or shock;  to transgress;  do anything displeasing.

Defense:  a noun meaning the act or state of defending or being defended;  protection;  vindication by force or argument;  a defendant’s plea or answers.

So, what I like about sports is that at the base of most sports is an individual or team attempting to score points by being offensive, that is by attacking, while the other team attempts to stop the score of their opponent by being defensive, or protective.  Why bring this up?  Much of modern dialogue is impossible because most individuals become offense and defensive regarding their beliefs.

As I have stated in the past, all humans need to have values (those things that the individual believes to be non negotiable rights or wrongs), and all human beings need to have a world view (where did all things, including ourselves come from).  In order to establish our own personal belief system, the individual must be open to new ideas, to learn, to process, and finally to decide what he/she believes.  Once these beliefs have been established, the individual should not change those beliefs without good reason.  I’ve already established that one of my beliefs is that freedom is a gift, and that gift allows me to make my own decisions regarding my personal beliefs, values, and worldview.  Another of my beliefs is that while you and I are free to discuss our values and world view, neither of us has the right to force our views on each other, nor should one attack the other personally when we disagree.  Additionally neither should we become defensive when the other expresses their personal opinion.  You and I need to disagree, agreeably, when we disagree.

Reread the definition of defense.  So defense is whatever means one uses to protect oneself, or others.  Reread again.  Notice the definition may come by force, argument, plea, or answer.  These are all very different means of defense.  One definition implies the defending of oneself or another in a court of law.  A second implies a physical defense, as in a fight or a war.  The third definition is the one that is the most applicable at this time, and that is, according to Webster, “to defend by argument”.  In fact the exact wording to which I refer is “vindication by argument”.

Vindication:   a verb meaning to prove to be valid; defend successfully;  assert a right to; justify;  or a noun meaning justification against denial, censure, or opposition;  defense; support by proof.

Argument:  a noun meaning that which is advanced in support of proof with a view to persuade or convince the mind;  a discussion, controversy or debate;  the subject of a discourse or writing;  an abstract or summary of a book.

So, defense may be physical or verbal, but an argument is always verbal, never physical.  Keep in mind that I’m a retired football coach, as well as a participant in the game.  I’ve always enjoyed the game of football because I enjoy contact.  Body against body.  Pushing. Shoving.  Grappling.  That’s how I’m wired.  So I’m not against that which is physical.  If you seek to deny me my life, my liberty, or my pursuit of happiness, I’ll become physical in a hurry.  My point is that the discussion of thoughts, beliefs, values,  should not result in violence.  Disagreement regarding beliefs, values, or worldviews does not deny one their life, liberty or pursuit of happiness.  The discussion of thoughts may result in an argument, but should not result a fist fight.  I’m trying to establish the fact that while you may not always agree with me, and I may not always agree with you, this disagreement should not result in either of us becoming offensive, defensive, or both.

That being said, my desire is not to offend.  Neither do I wish to become defensive.  I will state my beliefs from time to time, but you don’t have to buy what I’m selling.  If our beliefs collide, disagree, but don’t become offensive.  Don’t attack me personally.  Trust me, I won’t attack you.  I may disagree, but I won’t attack.  If a person says, “I’m sorry, but I can’t accept your beliefs”, it’s not the same as saying, “If you believe that, you’re stupid”.  If my beliefs cause you to become offensive, or defensive, stop reading my comments.  Unless you threaten my life, my liberty, or my pursuit of happiness or that of someone else, your thoughts, your beliefs, your values will not offend me.  I ask you to return the courtesy.