Brutally honest

The San Franscisco Chronicle yesterday wrote:

"This means that rather than simply repudiate, we must try to understand people whose views may shock and offend us. It's a common politically correct trope today that whenever someone is "offended" - especially about an issue of race or gender - the conversation stops and the offending parties must repudiate their statement. But sometimes offending people is productive: Honest dialogue about difficult and often personal issues will necessarily involve some bruised feelings."

Of course they were speaking about Obama's admirably gutsy speech about race, where he finally realized that "don't ask, don't tell" won't work for race issues. But of course the comment reminded me strongly about the recent discussions here, where some people were "offended" by me writing about controversial issues, and asked me to repudiate. So I'm following the advice from that newspaper, and will consider some bruised feelings a necessary and productive part of honest dialogue.