Friday, December 13, 2013

An Example of How It Should Be

I want to take a moment to sit back and write about a friend of mine. His name is Kingsley and he is from Nigeria. He has been living in the U.S. for a few years now, and will soon become a citizen. Unless the immigration people get my letter in time....but that's another story.

The first time I met Kingsley he had just been hired by the company I was working for. Someone took him to my office to introduce him to me. The initial words out of my mouth do not bear repeating, but let's just say he took it in stride. It didn't take me long to discover a few things about him.

Here's the good things. He is a decent man with a big heart to match his size. Being very articulate and having a vocabulary that either rivals are exceeds my own, we used to play a game over the e-mail system, trying to give each other words that we didn't know the definition of. Needless to say, it expanded both our minds in the realm of weird words.  Kingsley is a very good engineer, conscientious and thorough. He has an infectious laugh. Even though he is a grown man, when he laughs you can see the 'child' has never truly left him. In today's world, that's a good thing. Too many grow up and become stiff in their demeanor.

Now, here's the bad thing about Kingsley. He's a flaming liberal who would make Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid proud. Not to mention Obama. Kingsley has come to this country and decided the best political action he could take would be the wrong one. Being as highly intelligent as he is, this puzzles me.

He refers to me as a right wing nut job who is one of the most infuriating people he's ever met...politically speaking...and maybe in other categories. We have had some very terse and forthright discussions, sometimes resulting in each of us having to step back and re-evaluate the humanness of the other.

However, one thing has not happened. We have never stopped liking each other. We have never stopped supporting one another. And we have never stopped being friends. I told him the other day that I do not choose my friends based on their political beliefs. He feels the same way. Kingsley has repeatedly contacted me to find out how the movie deal is going and how my book writing is progressing. He called me this morning to check on my wife when he found out she was ill. In other words, Kingsley is a gentleman of the highest caliber. He doesn't allow our diametrically opposed beliefs to interfere with our relationship. We are not enemies. If anything, we are political opponents. If you look in the dictionary, there is a huge difference between the two.

And, this is how it should be in this country. I don't like the Democrat agenda and he doesn't like the Republican agenda. I think the Democrats are taking us down a road to economic destruction. Kingsley is the exact opposite. Yet, we still love each other like brothers. When I was going in for my heart surgery, I asked Kingsley to be a pall bearer at my funeral should I not come out of it alive. That's how much I think of him.

I have other liberal friends who enjoy putting me down on a personal level. It doesn't really bother me. I enjoy doing the same to them. But it doesn't have to be that way. How it should be, is how it is between me and my friend. I think he's crazy. He thinks I'm crazy. And we move on, arm in arm, checking on one other, caring for one another, and supporting one another. He is a good man who will do great things. Of that, I have no doubt.

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