Re: OT:Thanksgiving

"Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I was quite surprised by the revulsion that the last quoted paragraph evoked as I read it. Obviously, the world in 1861 was quite
different from the world in 2007, and I don't doubt that Mr. Stevens was sincere in his belief. He was probably a thorough
Southern Gentleman in every way, gracious to ladies, God fearing, and honourable in battle. We are complex creatures...

Sadly, I have encountered people in the US, even recently, who genuinely believe that Negroes are an inferior species and should
be tended like cattle, as God requires us to take care of them. (Southern Baptist... although I'm sure (hopeful) not ALL Southern
Baptists can believe this...). These are not wicked, evil people. (In fact some of them were kind, decent, and generous.) They are
a product of their environment and we should just be thankful that environment is being eroded by education.

Well written Pete, and I share your feelings. There are some people here who
feel that way. As much as I disagree with some of the provisions in the equal
rights legislation here (e.g. reverse discrimination), recently I have been
reflecting quite a bit on the improved race relations in the intervening years,
particularly among the "middle class", realizing it came largely through those
laws. I can remember as a boy seeing water fountains and theater entrances
marked "colored" or "negro", and found it disturbing even then. Today, it is
typical to see blacks and whites working together (again, middle class
situations) with no apparent issues. And mixed couples are fairly common now,
though extremely rare 40 years ago. This pleases me immensely.

I remember the day my high school was "integrated". We were all awed by the
obvious Big Events that were going down, wondering what was going to happen. I
don't remember any violence or other problems. Four blacks were in my class of
approximately 220, two boys and two girls. I had classes with both boys, and
liked both of them. Thinking back, I can only imagine the courage it must have
taken for those black students. We had our 40 year class reunion last year,
and I helped build and maintain a website for it. I received a very interesting
email from one of the black guys, Dr. Robert Manzy, talking about his experience
in going to school there. I don't feel free to share his email, though I'm sure
many of you would enjoy reading it. But I will include this one sentence: "I
thought I'd take a moment to let my classmates know how deeply appreciative I
am of how smoothly 'that year' went for all of us, for we were, indeed, making
history."

There are still a lot of problems, but it isn't all bad. I believe most of the
racial hatred and bias these days is in lower income/less educated groups.
Street gangs are a serious problem in most big cities, and they are highly
racial. Hispanics are now a larger percentage of the population than blacks,
and the tension between those two groups seems more intense than with whites.

But as I've said before, a type of law being passed these days I view to be
highly dangerous: the so called "hate crime laws". They are tantamount to
making how you feel about something become illegal, and that is a Very Bad
Thing. Two seminal events are associated with increased support for this type
of law here in the U.S., and it shows unclear thinking. One was when a male
homosexual was tied to a fence, tortured and srarved to death, and the other
was when a black man was tied by a chain to the back of a pickup truck and
drug to death. How anyone could commit such unthinkable crimes is beyond me,
and either crime warrants capital punishment, if anything does. But, what
difference does it make *why* someone did such a thing? Would it be somehow
"less bad" if it was done for money or jealousy, rather than bigotry? I think
not. And the potential bad consequences of such laws is staggering. Remember
the Japanese "Thought Police"? Same thing. A crime should be what you do, not
what you think, or how you feel. Will it become a crime to be in a bad mood,
or just obnoxious? The potential is there, and history has serious precedent,
even in current memory. Consider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came
--
Judson McClendon judmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."


.

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