Need an email response
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This may be right up Ginny's alley  I got this via email, and although am typically pretty conservative this just CHAPS me.
1. In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by
> a. Superman
> b. Jay Leno
> c. Harry Potter
> d. A muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40
>
>2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred
>by:
> a. Olga Corbett
> b. Sitting Bull
> c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
> d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
>
>3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
> a. Lost Norwegians
> b. Elvis
> c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
> d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
>
>4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
> a. John Dillinger
> b. The King of Sweden
> c. The Boy Scouts
> d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
>
>5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
> a. A pizza delivery boy
> b. Pee Wee Herman
> c. Geraldo Rivera
> d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
>
>6. In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year
>old American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered and thrown overboard
>in his wheelchair by:
> a. The Smurfs
> b. Davy Jones
> c. The Little Mermaid
> d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40
And this goes on and on and finishes like this...
Nope...I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you?
>So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics
>intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed
>to profile certain people.
>
>They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids,
>airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members
>of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal
>hips, and Medal of Honor winning and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave
>Muslim Males betwe en the ages 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of
>profiling.
Anyway, what I would love is a great response to this email...anyone got one? This had 15 examples in the last 40-50 years. But come on, we have women killing babies at that rate, should we all have to have psych exams before getting pregant? There are lots of examples of every race, every age and every religion of people making BAD choices, it is all sad and terrible but we don't right things by making more WRONG choices!
I don't have any advice on a response for you, but I've received this via email too, and though the examples given do happen to be true, your last paragraph sums up my feelings too.
If you are against the "light" tone of this email and that it seems to be making fun of horrible acts of violence, I agree with you there and you just might want to reply that the suffering of others is not amusing to you.
I'm afraid the response I'd make to this email is not one you're looking for, however.
Indeed, bad choices are made by every race, sex and religion, but right now, we seem to be targeted by (d),and I really feel we need to be doing more to protect ourselves. I live in NY, and when you live somewhere where you take your life in your hands just going to work because some crazed fundamentalist wants to make a statement you have a different take one things.
London, Madrid, it's only a matter of time before we get hit again unless we do have tighter security and we do profile. I don't think it's wrong to protect ourselves however we can. In fact, it would be wrong not to.
Ame
It's known as cherry-picking, with absurd alternative options thrown in. Whoever "developed" these facts started with:
Horrible events caused by Muslim fanatics between the ages of 17 and 40
and worked back from there. If the writer really wanted to look at the perpetrators of horrific events from 1968 to 2005, why limit it to only those 6 events? Unless, of course, your reason was to justify "profiling" of Muslim males between 17 and 40.
For example, a white non-Muslim male killed JFK. A white non-Muslim male bombed the Oklahama City federal building. A white non-Muslim male killed Martin Luther King, Jr. A white non-Muslim male attacked President Regan and seriously wounded Brady. Multiple white Christian males have been responsible for the sexual abuse of numbers of young Catholic boys and girls, over several decades. And so on. Would that cause you to profile white Christian males? .... I thought not.
Ginny, that is a point DH and I discuss frequently. It's quite common to hear "I hate Muslims, they're terrorists", but as a white person I have to think about people like Charles Manson and Jeffery Dhamer. How about Timothy McVeigh? These white men all committed horrific crimes, but you don't hear people saying "I hate white guys" because of it. How about women? Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, to name a few. The whole concept of profiling is a slippery slope, because they can always change the profile to get around authorities. John Linde Walker (or whatever the spelling is) for example. The other "profiling" of sorts is our safety precautions. The 9/11 attacks were unprecedented, but now it's been done, so if or when they attack again, it won't be the same type of attack. Meanwhile we're going crazy trying to make air travel safer, but we need to be focusing on what else they could do. Think like a criminal to catch a criminal.
I would also point out that the people whom our troops in Iraq are training to fight alongside them, to do police work alongside them, who are being killed alongside our troops by car bombs and weapons wielded by Muslim males between the ages of 17-40, are themselves Muslim males betwen the ages of 17-40.
The white christian males have not declared a jihad against the infidels, the more extreme muslim groups have. If you dont like being treated like a criminal, stop supporting them with your apathy, stop hiding them, stop condoning there murderous behavior, stop excusing there acts as religious. These are mass murders, not holy people. I have no problem with profiling, if you sleep w/ dogs you end up w/ fleas. I am sorry innocent good hardworking God fearing indivduals are being punished for the few who are causing trouble, but we are all being punished for acts that we had no part in. How many of us are uncomfortable flying now? How many of us worry about getting on a bus? How many of us dont want to go to busy malls? We have been been profiled by the people who mean to do us harm by their acts of terrorism. The only problem I have with profiles is that it is quite probable that this infection is going to spred to other ethnic and sexual groups, and we might miss somebody before they cause harm.
Indeed! They are being trained to defend their own lives, so we don't have to do it for them. Most of these guys are real heros, because many other "Muslim males between the ages of 17 - 40" are killing them, too!
It's marvelous to live a utopian ideal, but the reality is far different. How many idealists in this country would have a far different opinion if they lived in Israel or London or any of the US target cities?
How many of you cried and sat in agony wondering if you were going to get home on 9/11 as you sat, pregnant and alone with your first child, waiting for a bridge to open,with a view of lower Manhattan covered in smoke, and praying another plane wasn't coming in to decimate it? Did you spend hours trying to contact your husband, praying he was allright? Wondering how many of your friends and relatives who worked in lower Manhattan (my whole family is in banking ...)were dead?
Did you have anthrax contaminated mail delivered to your house? (We did).
Do you cringe everytime your husband says he needs to go into the city and will be taking a subway?
If you haven't experienced the fear ... then, respectfully, I say, let the government take any means necessary to prevent even one more life being lost. And if that means profiling and searches authorized by the Patriot Act then so be it.
As far as these arguments about everyone committing acts of violence, it's true. But those acts are not specifically aimed at destroying the American people or making us live in fear of our lives.
And God bless our troops who are doing their best to make sure the terrorists are occupied over there and not here!
Ame
The problem with that is there are millions of Muslim people who are peaceful, normal people. Their religion is NOT based on hate and murder, it's just some EXTREMISTS (note, extreme, the same way we have extremist Christians bombing abortion clinics) that feel Americans should die. I know a few bad apples spoil the bunch, but in that case should we subject every white male to search before entering a federal building, or walking near an abortion clinic? As someone else pointed out, subject all women to psych exams before they can have children? How about the generalization of whites by parts of the black commmunity. We "held them down", we owned slaves, etc. MY family, from the time we came to England, did NOT own slaves, but I'm white, and therefore "wrong" to some people. You simply cannot punish the whole group for the actions of an individual. Also, while we're focused on Muslim/Arab people, they may go recruit some WASPs, or Asians, or Hispanics, and so on. Evil doesn't know color or religion.
To quote Benjamin Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Does anyone remember the 110,000 Japanese U. S. citizens and legal residents who were forced into interment camps on the West Coast following Pearl Harbor? Does anyone remember that until July of 2005, the bombs in London were set off by Irish terrorists? Does anyone remember that until the Madrid bombing, the bombs set off in Spain were from Basque terrorists.
Yes, Islamic fundamentalists teach a "jihad" against America and the Western world - and teach that suicide bombing of innocents is acceptable. And Islamic mullahs around the world preach that this is a distortion of the Koran, and that the Koran, among other things, preaches very clearly that innocents are not to be the targets of war.
Yes, any intelligent security person will look twice and three times, and as often as necessary, at people who meet the profile of terrorists. And, unfortunately, this means eastern appearing young men (and women).
As for the security errors that kept members of Congress (including Senator Kennedy) off of planes because they were on a "list", well, I think that shows that our lists aren't very good and security people aren't very well trained.
By the way, where is the documentation for the searches of 80 year old grandmas, little kids, and pilots with identification (not that identification and uniforms cannnot be phony, of course)? I am always very suspicious of emails like this, because they don't provide documentation for many of their assertions, and they cherry-pick.
This country - America - has been a shining beacon of freedom, fairness, and justice for all for over 200 years. If we let "them" turn us into a paranoia that has us willingly surrendering the freedoms our young men and women are fighting to bring to Iraq, who wins? Not us, imo.
Terrorists come in all stripes and colors, from all faiths or lack of faith. It is prudent to look more closely at people who "look like" terrorists. But to do it solely on the basis of religion is so against everything this nation is supposed to stand for, I don't have words to describe it.
If it were me, I'd simply delete the e-mail as being from another uninformed person who has an agenda that s/he isn't willing to document or prove. I don't think it is worth your time to reply.
Ditto Ginny: If it were me, I'd simply delete the e-mail as being from another uninformed person who has an agenda that s/he isn't willing to document or prove. I don't think it is worth your time to reply.
I p robalby am just going to delete... BUT this lady who sent it to me is always sending me stuff. All of them very Christian almost cultist in nature. I am a very active Christian and have pretty strong beliefs, but I get this stuff from her on a regular basis and think, oh yeah that is what the Bible says...NOT. So when I get those I fire off a response with scriptures attached, theology explained, etc. And I send it to her and all her other friends that she sent this email too. I am now getting a LOT less emails from her. So I know I am only one or two responses away from getting her to quit emailling me! She is the mother of one of my girl scouts so I can't put her on my block list, which is what I would love to do! They have been planning on moving, although I will miss the daughter the mother is a whole different story. Thanks for your replies, it is exactly what I was looking for.
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