At 13:23 13-9-01 -0800, Jo Anne Bird wrote:
>John wrote:
> >I think that I speak for about 300 million of us when I say that when we
> >find the people who did this, we should shoot first and ask
> questions >later.
>
>John, you *do not* speak for me, nor my family, nor many of my American
>friends.
He probably also does not speak for many other Americans, but it is such a
wonderfully easy argument to justify whatever you say. (After all, if the
entire population agrees with you, you can not possibly be wrong, right?
And who will bother to check if all 300 million Americans really agree with
you?)
>Jeroen wrote:
> >This is exactly why I think it is not appropriate to post this. As a citizen
> >of a civilised Western nation, I believe that a person is innocent until
> >proven guilty. Maybe Osama bin Laden is guilty; or maybe he is not >(he
> >has already denied accusations in that direction). But until a court
> >>finds him guilty, based on ample evidence, our Western notions of
> >>justice dictate that he is innocent.
>
>I'm glad it was posted. I think the sentiment of the piece was *totally*
>appropriate. If you took out Osama bin Laden and put in 'Whoever did
>this', would you think it appropriate to post?
No, it still would not be appropriate, because it would still be fueling
hatred. The only reason why I might have less objections is that your
version does not already put the blame on a specific person when there is
no evidence that this person is indeed guilty.
Jeroen
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