Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Criticism With Love

Instead of always harping on a man's faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits.
Hold up to him his better self, his real self that can dare and do and win out.
  -- Eleanor H. Porter, 1868-1920


Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you will help them become what they are capable of becoming.
-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people  happy.  -- Samuel Goldwyn
 
These are a few of my favorite quotes on criticism and praise.

When it comes to praise and criticism I try to practice the philosophies of  being quick to praise and slow to criticize as well as  focusing criticism on an individual's actions and not the person. 
I don't always succeed but I try.   Often in the course of blogging,  I can become very passionate about my subject matter and not always practice the philiosophy of criticism with love. 
 
It gets very hard not to make personal atacks, when I see hurricane victims waiting for days to be rescued; women and young girls recounting the stories of brutal rapes and other sadistic cruelties in refugee camps;  corporate criminals that are responsible of thousands who have seen their retirement savings vanish;  wildlife reserves threatened so suburban teenagers can drive SUVs to the mall two blocks away  and, politicians that do nothing but convene meetings, make promises and give themselves raises,  but I try to resist. 

Recently, the major television networks have given a platform to conservative hate merchants like Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Melanie Morgan. One of the country's largest syndicates, Universal Press Syndicate, distributes Coulter's column. Beck was recently hired by CNN Headline News. Morgan broadcasts from a radio station owned by Disney. And all three -- and countless others like them -- are regularly given guest spots on cable-news networks.

I've added my name to a petition urging the media to stop spreading hate, and you can, too, at:
http://mediamatters.org/hatefree

You can find other news and actions at
www.mediamatters.org 

Pamela Lyn


 

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