Absolutely spot on Teri, but I just want to clarify a couple of things... I didn't write the comment about "The USA want to be a World POLICE"... However, while I agree with what you say, I can only assume Dietmar meant the USA Government, and not the individual people (and hell, probably not even all the USA Government want that authority?). I quoted it however, because one of the responses it generated was deeply offensive, and racist. While the USA comment was probably misinterpreted, or at least, could have been written better, it was not, to my knowledge, a vitriolic attack on any US citizen, on or off list, and certainly didn't warrant the comeback it received. Given the capitalisation of the word "POLICE" in the sentence, I see that comment as a simple play on words. Like I said, it could have been written better, but people seem to jump in before taking everything into account (and I know I've been guilty of that in the past). I also don't want to be accused of trolling..... For some reason, the post that just came through was delayed at my smtp server for 24 hours, so should have gone through yesterday, rather than coming through today, making it look like I'm just out picking fights. I'm not. And anyone who thinks I am, bite me. But seriously, things have become pretty heated in the last few days - but I'm still friends with the lot of you. I wonder if it's mutual... ;-) J. -----Original Message----- From: police-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:police-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Teri Kronberg Sent: 24 November 2003 22:59 To: police@mailman.xmission.com Subject: RE: [Police] Weirdo Whining.... We don't carry the weight of our countries on our shoulders. We don't suffer with responsibility for the wrongs, or bask in the rights of those who came before us. The truth is that we as individuals are responsible for our own actions, burdens, beliefs (religous or political, etc.), failures and successes. Personally, I refuse to take the responsibility for actions of my ancestors (and some were especially henius), much less the actions of strangers who just happen to have been born in the same country.
The USA want to be a World POLICE. So for a POLICE mailing list mentioning the Chief of the World Police is within the rules...
Allow me to explain the potential offense (not disparaging truth?) of this statement. For one things, it lumps together all Americans, even those who do not support the actions and policies of the government and/or it's Chief of Police. It does nothing but make individual Americans (on the basis alone of being American) feel they are being held responsible for the policy it states. It's not true that the entire USA wants to Police the world, since not every individual within it's borders supports that policy. It's a useless general statement directed at the person responsible for American policy (which is no one on this list). I hope my thoughts makes sense. Teri -- "Jason Sheldon" <jason@digital-solutions.co.uk> wrote: We all come from countries that have a past not to be proud of... Coming from Britain, I'm not proud that we occupied a huge chunk of the world and exploted it's people.... But then, my country decides to join a war I object to without asking my opinion, so I come from a country that has a present not to be proud of as well... J. ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Police mailing list Police@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/police