I would like to apologize for a few things I've written on the list within the last few weeks.
1) I apologize for writing that it was a relief that it was Etta Jones who passed away and not Etta James. I believe it was Fred who pointed out that it may not have been a relief to her family and friends and I never thanked him for calling me on that. 2) I apologize for a misplaced word in this sentence: "But whether the battle of Afghanistan proves to be an efficacy step in the war can only be answered by the passing of time - as more things that are now hidden become revealed and outcomes both expected and unexpected are faced." It should be "efficacious" not "efficacy". (I hate when that happens. Sometimes I feel like I've become to reliant on spell checking. It can't catch a mistake like that.) 3) I apologize for using the phrase "Afghani people". It should have been "Afghan people." 4) I apologize for referring to Indonesia as an Islamist nation. Indonesia is a republic which has the world's largest Muslim population. 5) I apologize for using the term radical islamist in reference to a Chinese province. "He (President Bush) went to China (not the least reason for which, I'll bet, is China's radical islamist population in its most oil rich Northern province)." I should have put the phrases in quotation marks because that's what the news report called that population. However, I do not know for myself that they are radical. I only know that there is a Muslim population there. I do not want to mislead anyone to think that my comment in any way confirms a connection between that population and bin Laden's network. 6) I'd like to apologize if I've ever used the words "fundamentalist islamists" for those associated with terrorist acts, Osama bin Laden or the "al Qaeda" network. There was an author named Elinor Burkett on KCET last night who spent a year in a Minneapolis suburban high school. Her motivation was the Colombine shootings. Burkett's observations from her time at the school were published on October 2nd. The title is "Another Planet: A Year in the Life of a Suburban High School." Burkett is now a professor at a university in Kyrgyzstan. She was there on 9/11 and talked about comments from some of her students. Her Muslim students pointed out that there is as wide a spectrum amongst Islamists as there is among Christians. To paraphrase, all fundamentalist Muslims are not terrorist, just as all fundamentalist Christians do not bomb abortion clinics. (The transcript for the show isn't up yet otherwise I would give an exact quote.) I try very hard to be very careful about my word choices. So I hope that I haven't caused any misunderstandings with any of my mistakes. Thanks for reading. Brenda n.p.: WNYC Brenda
