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Subject: Re: Why I am not going to the Graz WCCC

Author: Bruce Moreland

Date: 19:33:09 04/02/03

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On April 02, 2003 at 17:56:31, Amir Ban wrote:

>I read it, but I don't understand why you are not going. Let's see, will you:
>
>- Be aiding evil acts ?
>- Do something unpatriotic ?
>- Identify with views you don't support ?
>- Appear to endorse the jerk ?
>
>None of this seems to apply. It's not like going to Berlin 1936 or even Moscow
>1980.
>
>The only issue that I understand is worrying that you'll be met with hostility.
>I think it's reasonable to ask the ICGA to ensure this doesn't happen. After all
>the President is British (and Jewish).
>
>Your agenda should be:
>
>1. Win the war
>2. Try to win Graz

This is fair, but I don't feel that it is appropriate for me to go.  I don't
want to accept hospitality from someone who would send something like that in
email.

It is hard to bother an American with symbols.  The swastika doesn't mean that
much to us, for instance, we don't have a visceral reaction to it.  A burning
American flag means something to some people, but it means very little to a lot
of people, for instance me.

Soldiers are something different.  We had Vietnam, and everyone here knows how
much the returning soldiers were hurt by people who spit at them and so on.  So
now, no matter what people believe about any particular war, everyone here has
figured out that the troops are off limits.  If you criticize, you go top down,
not the other way.

I can't think of anything you could send an American that would offend them
more.  Really.  If any American has an idea, please let me know.

It goes beyond this though.  There is genuine animosity underlying this.  I
don't want to accept the hospitality of someone who hates Americans and feels
compelled to express it this way.  How do you accept hospitality from someone
who makes it clear to you that he hates you?  This is not just a vaguely
unpleasant post, or something like that.  This was an email so off the wall that
I thought it might be a forged-header "Here is a special program, you are the
first to see it, I hope you are liking it very much" virus thing.

Perhaps the sender meant it as an anti-war email.  But I took it as a hate post,
and I think most Americans would also take it this way.

Beyond all of this is something very concrete that affects someone other than
myself.  I have received an email that essentially expresses the hope that a
specific basically innocent person will undergo torture and death, which seems
rather likely at this point.  How can I receive this and have anything to do
with the person who sent it?

Finally, let's talk about the person who sent the email.  He sent more of these,
with little stir.  Maybe an angry email back.  If I had ignored this, if I had
argued with him about the war, if I had called him an asshole, or in some other
way had reacted as *he* planned, he would feel like he had done the right thing.
 He would feel good about having done this.  If I do this instead, perhaps at
some point he will regret that he sent this material.  He may feel bad about
having done this.  That's a step in the right direction.

Let him learn that there are consequences when you do this kind of thing.

bruce



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