Second Chances

So I've been kind of riled up about the "Freedom of Religion" bill in Arizona, which essentially says that individuals have a right to deny services to people if their values go against certain religious beliefs.  I know that the abortion/birth control issue, as it conflicts with some religious tenets, is a very complex one, but the probable interpretation of the bill which would allow businesses to turn gay customers away is abhorrent and backward.  I thought that battle was won many years ago through the Civil Rights Act?  So while we're awaiting Governor Brewer's decision on whether or not she will veto the bill, this happened:

I spend a lot of time on Facebook.  One of these days, it may be the subject of one of my daily posts.  But this post isn't about Facebook.  It is about a post that a friend shared about how wrong the above-mentioned bill in Arizona is.  One of his "friends" commented on the post, and in his comment, he made a rather derogatory remark against gays under the guise of not having anything against them . . . "as long as they don't make a move on me."  As if all gay people are predators, you know?  So I called him out on it.

And the subsequent exchange got ugly.  I immediately regretted that I had chosen to comment, but it was hard to walk away from it.  No need to go into specifics here.  The point of this post is that I had a choice to make.  I could continue the argument, which would likely regress into name-calling, bad language, and a whole lot of bad feeling.  Or I could do something else.

I sent a private message to my sparring partner, someone I've never met, expressing my regret that the conversation had turned nasty, and informing him that I was going to delete my comments.  Maybe he would like to do the same?

His response was immediate.  He was not comfortable with the conversation, either, and immediately removed his part of it.  He also edited out his "as long as they don't make a move on me" comment, acknowledging that it was wrong.

And then we had a nice long Facebook chat!  We exchanged stories about our mutual friend, found some common ground about the Arizona situation, and wished one another well.

We are at opposite ends of everything, from age to political views to religion.  But we made peace.  Because I had a second chance to turn something around.  And I took it.