the twelve tribes

Once I had a friend who was a scientist.
A scientist with faith.

Faith, when taken to mean "unjustifiable
belief", is always a bit of a problem to
deal with if one disagrees.

Still, friends are nice to have.  And so
mostly I just don't talk about whatever.

But a scientist with faith is a bit more
problematic.  After all, science for the
most part takes the opposite approach to
faith--although, admittedly, some people
seem to have too much faith in science.

This particular friend's faith was a bit
of a problem, though.  It seemed that by
simply knowing one small fact about what
group someone belonged to, she therefore
knew all kinds of facts about the person
involved--facts both good and bad.

What do you do with a racist?  I know it
is rarely good to try to change someone;
is it never good?  Yet I cannot help but
try it with racists.  I cannot just give
up on them, I feel.  But my morals won't
stand doing nothing.  "This is where the
party ends."

But I've never changed a racist, and the
outcome is always the same; in the end I
have one fewer friends.  And I know that
it will end the same with her.  You see,
although I used the past tense before, I
haven't quite broken this one off yet.

Partly this is because hers is much less
blatant than most racism; partly because
it leads her to expect both good and bad
things, and is thus less offensive.

She claims she understands that I desire
to change her, though.  She says that it
is "just like a Leo."

buzzard