Dear Tom, I think you are being a little unfair. I have just counted 567 messages from Arto in my own computer archives, which I have saved since subscribing to this list. He has made many valuable contributions over the years, which I for one appreciate. It is unfortunate that he chose to bring politics into a forum where politics have no place. However, it is also unfortunate that he has decided to leave us. Somehow I feel he is cutting off his nose to spite his face, but I hope his absence will be short-lived, and we can all get back to discussing the lute, with Arto's input too.
Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. PS Message for Arto, if he is still logging on to the Dartmouth site: Please stay with us. Please keep writing in about lutes and lute music, as you have so often done in the past. Tell us about your music-making in Finland. Tell us about your website, where we can read about who the Lutenetters of this list are. Tell us again about Father Christmas, who comes from your neck of the woods, and who brings happiness to children all over the world. That's all fun, and involves positive things we can all share. Politics is a wretched business. It's divisive. Let's leave that to the politicians and the newspapers. The lute has its origins in the Middle East. Some musicians there play the ud, while some of us in the West play the lute. We share a common heritage. Let's build on positive things like that, and eschew anything which might divide us. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Goodbye > Arto, > > Your reasons for leaving this community are as thoroughly immoral as those > you claim are driving you away. One assumes that the treatment of the Iraqi > prisoners to which you object results from them simply being Iraqis, guilt by > association. You are seriously telling us that you no longer wish to be part of > our lute community simply because many of us are American and British, likewise > guilt by association. This is a typical example of stereotyping, as carried > out by the Nazis, Communists, and indeed the fanatics who were responsible for > the WTC attack and many other acts of barbarity. > > By assuming that you know how we feel about the goings-on in Iraq you pretend > to a knowledge you do not have. And even worse, you either infer that we all > agree with such things, or simply find that being in the company of Americans > and British people is beneath the dignity of a man from a continent which > produced Auschwitz, the Gulags, the Inquisition, and countless other horrors in > its history. > > Your 'protest' is not only meaningless, but the act of a person in some ways > even worse than those soldiers you disapprove of. If education, music, the > arts and sciences have any value over and above themselves, then it surely ought > to include the ability to think clearly and refrain from primitive and > insulting insinuations, let alone condemning two entire nations for the deeds of a > few of their citizens. What you have done with your empty gesture is thus the > ultimate betrayal, the first in a series of steps that led to Auschwitz and the > denial of humanity for the sake of arcane and misconceived beliefs. > > TB
