A friend of mine shared his impressions of his first Tea Party.
 
"I left feeling sad and sick. I couldn't believe grown-up people could act so childishly. Worse than childish. Just downright mean-spirited. Hurtful. I went to the Tea Party because I wanted to hear how others felt about how things are going in our Country. You know, what people really thought of a more simple tax system, the pros and cons of national healthcare reform and if they worried about the national debt like I do. You know, all the stuff everybody's talking about."
 
"But mostly what I heard were people grandstanding, calling other people bigots, right-wing supremacists, fascists. The other side screaming back, nigger lover, morons, elitists, fascists!"
 
"I left. Man, I felt sad. It made me sick."
 
Part of my job as an architect includes trying to steer projects through the twists and turns, the hot-air-filled intestinal flue of politics; be it small town pettiness, big city ego, wealthy good 'ol boy country and wealth-envy social clubs, special interest neighborhoods or lone-ranger protag-actionists. It's the toughest part of my job.
 
On one such job I said, "The idea of neighborhood densification is to create more open space, to create a certain critical mass of people living closer to each other. This critical mass encourages sustainability. People can walk to the market, they can stroll in the surrounding parkland, now left free from the endless march of suburbia. The sense of community is enhanced."
 
"To make this project truly affordable, we need to add twelve more units. To do that, we need a variance from the zoning code, a height variance of only eight feet. We've done detailed computer studies showing how the building's shadow won't touch any neighbors' yards and will never block anybody's view of the lake."
 
"I promise you all, within the decade there will be a thousand condominium units here, in and surrounding your neighborhood. This is a chance to have a positive voice in that evolution."
 
A skinny man with a white goatee wearing a bright red beret, toting a too-large leather purse-pack, stood up and hissed, "I know from personal experience that Mr. Porter is a cheap tipper. My future son-in-law is a waiter and a starving artist and waited on Mr. and Mrs. Porter. His tip was offensive. I am a professor. I teach The Art of Protest. I have gone around the neighborhood and collected signatures of those who vehemently appose such development. Why not make the property a park and donate it to the neighborhood!"
 
Never mind that the skinny guy's almost son-in-law was the laziest, meanest, most inattentive waiter my wife and I had ever experienced. Never mind that we tipped the lazy punk ten percent anyway, way more than he deserved. And two years later, two years, the skinny guy with the white goatee and red beret, totally ignorant of reality, arrogantly tries to tear apart the development I was proposing,"because I was a cheap tipper."
 
Less than five years later, over a thousand condominiums surround that guy's neighborhood.
 
Arrogant Ignorance.
 
Nothing turns my stomach like an arrogant ignoramus. The arrogant ignoramus is a parasitic tape worm that feeds off of other people's energy. It survives by drinking up the negative muck of others like themselves and it grows large and fat and lazy by sucking down the positive, the hopeful, the joyful, the faithful, those who believe a better day should come.
 
The arrogant ignoramus comes in all shapes and sizes, female or male, any color, any creed. It is indiscriminate except for its hatred of the happy. It eats joy. It chokes down into its dark layered gullet anything and anyone it perceives as a threat. The arrogant ignoramus fears change. It abhors enlightenment.
 
The purely arrogant can be tolerated. They may be steered by appealing to their vanity. They are easy to forgive or to simply ignore.
 
The purely ignorant can be loved. They may be educated. They may want to learn. They are easy to embrace.
 
I am arrogant at times and I am ignorant of many things. I pray I am never arrogant about my ignorance nor ignorant about my arrogance. My true friends are invited to slap me silly, should they find me either.
 
Humility is the antithesis of arrogant ignorance. Humility bends a knee in order to know the truth.
 
Helen Keller, blind but seeing, said, "No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."
 
The arrogant ignoramus is the ultimate pessimist.
 
Another power-hitting woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, declared, "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop and look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
 
The arrogant ignoramus is the epitome of stupid fear.
 
"If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience," wise words to fight the arrogant ignoramus, suggests Swami Vivekananda.
 
I am arrogant at times and I am ignorant of many things. I pray I am never arrogant about my ignorance nor ignorant about my arrogance. My true friends are invited to slap me silly, should they find me either.
 
Humility is the antithesis of arrogant ignorance. Humility bends a knee in order to know the truth.
 
 
You all have a wonder-filled day of Laboring for Life!