Kinda like.. you dont know till it happens to you...whats new in life ,,huh

I have learned a lot while managing to live as long as I have, and my opinions of things and my approach to things, in many cases, have changed from when I was 22 or 23 and could afford to spout off about things I didn't know anything about. There was a time when I didn't understand my grandpa's grace, and only now am I starting to 'get it'. I can see now why he feels the way he feels and why he acts (or doesn't act) the way he does. God forbid something ever happened to a child of mine, cause I'm likely to kill the SOB that did it - and ya'll can visit me in jail until falconhater throws the switch. But that's not the point.

The old saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover" is accurate
Never, EVER assume something unless you're prepared to be wrong
Do unto others as you would have done to you
Don't throw rocks in a glass house
Innocent until proven guilty
Stuck between a hard rock and a fence post

No, wait, that last one is my wife's version. She always gets the sayings 'mostly' right. LOL But you must also be a responsible person to yourself and do what you can to stay away from situations that are potentially sub-optimal, for lack of a better way to express it.


You get the theme. People throw good lessons right out the window for all kinds of reasons. People chose to ignore things because they want to, and they chose to circumvent rules when convenient, and some people will trash any thing and any person that gets in the way of THEIR view of things. We've all been guilty of these kinds of things at some point or other. I made the assumption that falconhater didn't have a degree in English. He does. I was wrong. He clearly assumes his degree is evidence of his knowledge. It isn't. He is wrong.

So when a guy is accused of 'rape', so many people start beating their chests or hoping for this punishment or that punishment or maybe no punishment at all. There is evidence of several people doing that on this site alone. I just do not follow the logic. I'm the FIRST guy in line to sound off on punishment once a person is proven guilty, but I'm also the FIRST guy in line to tell the crowd to wait until the process is complete, because I know for a undeniable fact that the accused is often innocent of the crime and that there isn't always enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt to convict, even thought what evidence there is may 'suggest' guilt. I manage to maintain my respect for the system because I believe in it, and I have a genuine desire to understand why others do not. And everyone's principles go right out the window when something hits close to home, whether they admit it or not.

You see a rich athlete. He gets himself into trouble with some lady. The vigilantes among us arrive with a noose on the ready. OH, the POOR VICTIM! I say let's slow down here, because I can point to many times where the 'victim' turned out to be the accused. The NFL PREACHES to these kids to watch themselves, and to be on the lookout for gold diggers, although they use different language I would imagine. All rookies are required to attend this event every year. I've worked for several companies that require everyone (men and women) to attend sexual harassment training so the employees KNOW what it means, and the lawyers who teach these classes will tell you, it has as much to do with knowing how to spot that gold digger as it does knowing you can't force yourself on someone.

So yeah, you don't know what happens until it happens, and you don't know what happened until you have all the facts. Making assumptions is dangerous, and if you're not careful you'll end up between a hard rock and a fence post.