I am just me. I read at all sorts of places. I was registered at Dkos for a while, and now I am registered here. I am an older woman, I am English and British, I am Pro-choice, I am anti-capital punishment, I am mostly a Liberal-Democrat, I am loosely Pagan, I am a charity worker, I am a youth worker, I am a drugs worker, I am a mother, I am divorced, I am a dog owner, I am a cat owner, I am a car owner, I am a walker.
I am all of these things and may be considered to be part of a group in any of these categories. However, I am also an individual and may disagree with other individuals in those groupings on any number of issues. I will also behave differently from everyone else in any grouping, as other individuals will behave differently from me. All of this may seem obvious, yet the natural inclinations of humans everywhere is to group and generalise.
Generalisation is almost always destructive in some measure, and will upset or offend someone. I am very aware of the process of change and that this place, Booman Tribune, has been put under tremendous pressure by such a large and sudden influx. It will only work if everyone (incomers and older residents alike) takes responsibility for their own, individual interactions and doesn’t either behave as if they are part of a smaller group or treat others as part of a seperate group. Every one of us has our own rules of interaction that we have developed through our whole lives and when different rules and cultures come together, there is always potential for tension. One of my ‘rules’ is that I believe everyone deserves to be treated with respect, which I always try to do: others may have different rules and I have the right to walk away from them.
I hope this doesn’t come over as preachy, it isn’t intended to be: it is a plea to not think in terms of BMT-ers and kos-ers, but to see individuals who have arrived simultaneously. This happens to be where I have stopped for a while on my journey: I am a lone traveller, not part of a group tour.