Richard,

You committed the heinous crime of "expressing perhaps another view point 
other than the stereotype American one". Americans are VERY sensitive
about anything slightly critical of the good ol' US of A, and often condemn
such "critics" as one of, or combination of: ignorant, "commies", socialists 
(as though that's a nasty horrible thing!), jealous, "lefties", etc.

If anyone doubts the veracity of my observation, just read the responses
to Richard's email. 

I expect that I'll cop an earful (screenful?) for this, but I'm used to the
standard knee-jerk reactions that I'm likely to get. Oh well, there may be 
the odd, well-reasoned, thoughtful response, so I won't hit <DEL> to all
of them.

The words of "Imagine" are particularly appropriate to this topic. But then,
John Lennon was a leftist anarchist hippie commie...

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...

Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one. 

I live in hope that my children will see a nicer world.
Greg.

>>> Richard Barker <[log in to unmask]> 18/09/02 2:16:48 >>>
Hi

Some people are very sensitive.

Why when I thought I wrote a fairly acceptable Email, expressing perhaps
another view point other than the stereotype American one, do I receive some
ridiculous response like this.

>And, it is the only nation in history that, in time of war, has had the
>means to conquer anyone and everyone, and then, did not use it. After WWII,
>we could pretty much have made British Imperialism seem like a dress
>rehearsal, walked into any and every capital city, and set our own
policies.
>Don't like it? This bomb's for you. Cities proved easy enough to rebuild.

So are you advocating that America could have blown up the world if it
wanted to.  Yes that's mature, what does that have to do with anything.  By
the way, even if you ignore the stupidity of the suggestion, there probably
wasn't enough material around to make enough bombs and it would hardly have
been very constructive.

You mention British Imperialism, just because your patriotic and seem to be
offended by the slightest criticism of your country, don't assume that I
feel the same way.  I would probably agree with lots of criticisms of
Britain and it's history, I wouldn't see it as offensive, unless it was
particularly inaccurate and racist.

<snip remainder>

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