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But I do have to point out that you ignored / chose not to quote the part of my post that gave my example of one way Americans do not respect the opinions of others.

I find that sort of interesting.
I think he was trying to drop the discussion in a graceful way. But if you insist on talking about your specic examples:
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I don't see people respecting the opinion of gay couples who want to marry, do you? Sure, there are some, and in a large country like the US, "some" adds up to quite a few people. But still, are we respecting that opinion?
Gay marriage is a far murkier subject than simply respecting opinions. You can't make a legal statement one way or the other without stepping on someone's opinion. But the important thing is that respecting another's option doesn't mean agreeing with it, it means seperating people from their views and recognizing that however much you might dissagree with somone else, you never have a right to be abusive or denegrade them. Saying "I don't think gays should marry" is not intolerant or disrespectful. You can disagree with the statement, challenge it's validity, or even believe it to be backward and of 0 value, but in the end it's a point of view and the person stating it has every right to do so, despite it's validity. Or put another way, if everyone agreed on the issue of gay marriage, what difference would anyone be tolerating or respecting? The fact is that gay people get married every day and their right to do so is respected. Pastors stand up in church every week (somewhere I'm sure) and say that it's wrong, and their right to do so is respected. Whether the law should recognize the former officially is about determining what marriage is in the legal sense and why it's important to the government. I repeat: this is far more complicated than simply respecting opinions.

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I sure didn't see anyone respecting the opinions of the Guardian readers or staff, either.
Of all the people who have read the Guardian, how many have you heard from? Yes many of the printed letters were disrespectful, but it is likely only a VERY small subset even made their opinions known and even a smaller number were printed publically. I'm sure there were TONS of people who thought the Guardian was out of line who respectfully didn't air their views. There were probably even some who wrote in to say they thought it was a bad idea without denegrading the Guardian or it's staff.

I'm not arguing for or against whether Americans respect others in general, but I do think your examples fall short of proving your point. Respect is not about agreeing with or even believing that another's viewpoint has merit, it is about the way you treat others when you disagree.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.