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> I hope we don't subject loyal and decent Arab-Americans or Arab immigrants
> to the kind of shameful acts of racial and hateful persecution that we
> inflicted during WWII upon loyal Japanese-Americans.
>
> Andy Crawford
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Dan Roberts:
... but yesterday, I really really did want to hate them, and i knew
gut levelthat'd be really really wrong for me to do.
> > Lots of people of Middle Eastern extraction work in
> > high-tech. They may have trouble from prejudiced,
> > vengeful idiots. Those of us from other backgrounds
> > may need to stand up for our perfectly innocent
> > co-workers who may happen to share an ethnic
> > background with suspected terrorists.
>
It's called "Level of Detachment," folks.
Its easy to see what's right and truly fair when we
are at peace with ourselves and the immediate world
around us. And when we are detached from some bad
situation or cataclysmic event by distance (happened
on another continent, fer crying out loud), time (Hey,
we're talking some 50 years ago), relations (nobody I
know), experience (I live in the country---these is
city folk), environment (we're retired), or any number of
these things, well, detachment allows us to be civil...
to speak of just things, and what's right. Equality,
and fairness...
But when it's up front, in your own backyard, so to
speak, and with the horror of the act burned into the
eyes of or experienced first hand by you and your
loved ones, detachment becomes much harder.
When the memories of some terrible act or acts
become etched forever into your very soul... Objectivity
tends to go out the window.
People like to group things, including people, into types.
Stereotypes is a very human thing. It represents order.
So, it's very hard not to hate or look down on people who
are somehow similar in several ways to those that have
caused a terrible death or great hurt to a family member,
especially someone beloved, like a wife or child. Then
it becomes personal, and the rage of bitterness, hurt, loss,
and outrage sweeps over us as surely as that clould swept over
lower Manhattan...
Rising above it becomes a much greater struggle... That's
when we really prove ourselves as a human race.
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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