Subject: A tirade inspired by Don's exclusion
Date: Aug 24 20:45:42 1999
From: MBlanchrd at aol.com - MBlanchrd at aol.com


Okay, I'll throw down right now.

I think Don should be allowed to come back to Tweeters, if he wishes to. He
may not, and we will all be the poorer for it. I know there's a lot of people
out there who are bristling at this and for that I wish you would look at the
larger picture.

Maybe he is mean spirited, and maybe he did say nasty things, and I am not
apologizing for that. But he was fighting for something bigger than an
argument. This whole thing started, I believe, or the same old debate, that
of creationism vs evolution.
Please, lets look at it in this light.

A truly and wholly religious culture, one that obeys only ONE religion, one
whose laws are set by a book written thousands of years ago, can be called a
fundamentalist culture. We have that in countries like Iran, and very soon
Afghanistan. In Iran, an ayotollah or an imam tells you what to believe, what
to say to God (this is the difference between Shiite and Sunni
Moslems....Sunnis don't need a middleman to pray for you.) and if you don't
believe, you die. Your family dies. this is usually accomplished by beheading
if you are male and stoning to death if you are female.

Then there's the other extreme, that of NO religion, no belief in a higher
being. The State tells you what to think, what to believe. We have that in
countries like North Korea. If you go against the state, you die. Your family
dies. This is accomplished by imprisonment forever or just a bullet in the
head.

OK, folks, then we have US. Americans. We think differently than the person
next to us, we pray to different gods, we believe in different things. Some
of us believe in a god that created us in his image, some of us believe we
evolved from single celled creatures. BUT WE ALL HAVE THE FREEDOM AND THE
PEACE TO THINK AS WE CHOOSE TO THINK!!!!!!!!!!!! And I don't die, and my
family doesn't die because I happen to think differently than you.
Do you want to be a fundamentalist and live in a fundamentalist country? Then
move to Iran. Do you want to be a communist and live in a communist country?
Then move to North Korea. But please do NOT change MY COUNTRY to suit
yourself, OKAY???
I spent 21 years of my life keeping this country free. If you want to live
in slavery no matter what it's flavor, MOVE. Don't change MY country to suit
yourselves.

Michelle, standing on top of the tallest soapbox I can find.
Littlerock, WA