Agree to Disagree

Nice try, WordPress! Are you trying to make us get all angry and political with this question? As an American, I vehemently disagree with nearly everything that is said and done by our current president. However, the people that voted for him surely disagree with everything about his predecessor. Instead of expounding on that, I thought of several public figures that I disagree with. For the purposes of this list, I am considering anybody whose voice I have heard or read either on t.v. or online or even in print as “public”.

In no particular order, I disagree with:

• Anybody who says people with mental illnesses are dangerous or that people who commit violent crimes do it solely because they have a mental illness. This is a big part of the reason that there is such an unfair stigma surrounding mental health issues!
• The critics who say M. Night Shyamalan peaked with “The Sixth Sense” and that his movies after that were trash. Um, hello? Have they not seen “Signs”? That movie is the one that my husband and I have probably seen the most given that we watch it at least once a week. True story. Granted, not all of his movies are top tier, but they at least tell good, interesting stories.
• The people online in the comments section of random movie related social media posts that try to tell people that in the movie “Tombstone”, Val Kilmer is actually saying, “I’m your huckle bearer” and not “huckleberry”. They insist that he says “huckle bearer” because it refers to someone who carries a casket, like a pallbearer. A huckle being one of the handles on the side. It makes sense that Doc Holliday would say that in the movie because it would mean he’s saying that he’ll carry Johnny Ringo to his grave, basically a death threat. But that’s not what he says! Val Kilmer himself, in his autobiography debunks that theory. In fact, the book itself is titled I’m Your Huckleberry! Case closed. Not only that, but my “I’m your huckleberry” t-shirt will also disagree with that whole “hucklebearer” theory.
• The politicians and mom groups who want to ban books. Really, anybody who says certain books should be banned. If there’s a book you don’t want your kid reading, don’t let them read it. But you don’t get to tell other parents what their kids aren’t allowed to read. I will forever be grateful to my mother for never saying no when I wanted to buy a book. That includes the Stephen King book, Misery when I was in the 6th grade. I think those book ban enthusiasts would be appalled to think of their children reading King books at that young age. But I turned out fine. In fact, I turned out o.k. despite reading Flowers in the Attic not long after that first Stephen King book. If anything would mess someone up it’s that book! Siblings being locked in an attic by their evil grandmother and manipulative mother only to fall into an incestuous relationship with one another? Instead of turning me into whatever bad person book banners think I would have turned into from having read that, I turned into a well-read person who can remember the shock of reading that book and appreciate it for what it was, a book with a really twisted story that was entertaining and shocking to read.
• The keyboard warriors who insist that Rose was the true villain in the movie “Titanic”. Apparently, it is now widely accepted that she was the villain because she spent her whole life with that diamond and didn’t once pawn it for the benefit of supporting her family. Then she basically throws it away when she knew that Bill Paxton’s character had devoted his life and career to finding it. Her final act of villainy apparently came when she died and instead of reuniting with her husband and probably her kids in heaven, she reunites with the guy she knew for like, two days and hooked up with when she was a teenager. That is, of course, excluding the massive argument surrounding how she could have helped Jack survive even if they couldn’t both get on the door because of buoyancy issues. People insist they could have taken turns or something. Those people present a good argument. However, I disagree. She is not the villain. She was a girl in love and the whole trajectory of her life changed because of Jack. Her heart went on! Don’t hate her for that!

If given more time, I could probably extend this list… I’d put my husband on it (even though he is technically a public figure only when he’s at work). I could explain the disagreement about heat lightning (there is no such thing!). Or his argument that I repeatedly cheated when I taught him how to play Rummy 500 when we first met (I did not!).

When it comes to disagreeing, I think the most important thing to remember is that it really is o.k. to ‘agree to disagree’. Sometimes it’s necessary because many times arguing does not lead to anyone actually changing their minds, it just leads to frustration and sometimes hurt feelings. Let’s not be those people.