[Mpls] Issues

[Michael Atherton]

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who took
the time to reflect and post their thoughts
about values.  It's really something I've been
thinking a lot about in regards to raising our
children and do appreciate the insights of others.  
There are a couple of comments I'd like to make

Laura Waterman Wittstock wrote:

> I'm with Earl on the values. People often confuse values with 
> ethics or beliefs. I'd call Michael's list ethics, a creed, or 
> even attributes. For example, not everyone has the capacity to be 
> intellectual.

Intellectualism is the appreciation of the intellect and it's
products, it's not the same as intelligence.  So I believe
that most everyone has the capacity of be intellectual,
in much the same way that while many people may not
have artistic talent, they can still appreciate art.

Emilie Quast wrote:

> For Michael's list, I'd have to drop the word "successful" because 
> there are so many kinds of success.  Financial success is nice as 
> long as it's not at the expense of other kinds of success that I 
> value more highly.

You have to remember that there was an explicit order to my list,
so success has to judged in terms of other values.  Personally,
I believe that success provides the ability to help others.
Financial success certainly falls into this category.

Ron Leurquin wrote:

> I wonder then if we should uphold the Boy Scouts for its efforts at
> discrimination against the GLBT community then? 

If the Boy Scouts were following their own creed, they
wouldn't be discriminating against the GLBT community.

Earl Netwal wrote:

> Recently the DFL as a party has been struggling with the concept.  
> Primarily in response to some of our opponents insistence on claiming 
> "Values" as their terrain. But also because there is a desire to clarify 
> our own message and image.  This turned out to be a difficult task. 
> Afterall as the party for the people, we discover that people have a 
> wide range of values. The recently released results for now
> focus on four "process" values: Opportunity, Accountability, Prosperity 
> and Fair Play.

If this is the best the DFL can do, then I think they're blind 
to what many Americans are hoping to see in a political party.

Michael Atherton
Prospect Park