Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.96.980812100241.20796A-100000@ux1.cyberenet.net> Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 11:44:26 -0400 From: R Myers <mailto:tuandbob@CYBERENET.NET> Subject: Re: DEVEL-L Digest - 10 Aug 1998 to 11 Aug 1998 To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
> > Specifically, the Committee recommend emphasis on:
> >
> > -- ...software that is more dependable and reliable;
> >
> > -- Communication systems to support billions of users and devices...
> >
> > -- High-speed computers and software...
> >
> > -- ...ensure America's workforce is prepared for the Information Age.
Restating the obvious, and already many times stated, is wasteful. Using a lot of extra words to make something sound more important is also self serving and pompous.
Thank you Marlene for presenting an additional lesson which may not have been your primary purpose.
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> Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998 07:26:43 -0500
> From: mailto:michael_o._patterson@HUD.GOV
> Subject: Re[2]: Values among villagers
Michael, here we go again. I still believe that using a .gov account to make personal replies on subjects not part of that government departments primary function, shows poor judgment at best, and may be in violation of departmental regulations. It certainly was in the section of DOT I worked in.
Be that as it may, the position you expressed prompts me to reply.
> [Portion Deleted]
> People here in the South fly the Confederate Flag rather than recognize
> how offensive others find it because that is their value system.
Have you considered that the Red/Green/Black and/or Red/Gold/Black flags are just as offensive to another group of people?
> We transplanted Yankees just scratch our heads because we just do not
> understand.
As one born in Philadelphia, raised up in the Tidewater area of Virginia during the war, and moved to California, I believe I qualify as transplanted*. Please excuse me from your version of "we". If you spent as much time trying to understand, as you do bragging about your inability to understand, you might. Having spent my last eight years in the DC area (where I believe you are), I learned to understand, if not agree with, many points of view, including the "southern mentality".
It is possible to understand. All you have to do is try.
* To make matters "worse", I now reside in NJ (Yankee), but below the Mason and Dixon Line (Damn Yankee). I belive I've learned something about being translated and divergent points of view/value systems.
> On that very issue, there are Confederate flags being sold, with
> the colors of Africa: green, gold, and black, I think, sold by
> some black entrepeneurs.
The British ensign has a similar pattern. It's not a Confederate flag. Neither is the one you describe above.
> Now that's a flag I might think about flying.
A flag patterned exactly on the the Stars and Bars of the Confederate flag, using the colors you describe, seems to be designed to be deliberately offensive.
Why is it acceptable for you fly a flag deliberately designed to be offensive, and not acceptable for others, to fly an already existing flag that one group of people who've been led to believe is offensive to them?
That's just a valid a point as the one that states that particular flag expresses pride in another principle. It's a valid proposition, though the pattern duplication does seem a bit suspicious.
> It's kind of like the Irish flags with both green and
> orange, or even the Tudor Rose: a white and red rose, showing peace
> between once bitter enemies, the houses of York and Lancaster.
I beg to differ. Neither of the flags you described are meant to promote the idea of peace. One represents, in part, a states rights idea (though I strongly disagree with some of the "rights" that group sponsored). The second seems meant to aggravate the first group.
> Images of peace are perhaps an important part of development.
Perhaps flying both flags equally would be a better symbol to develop peace and cooperation.
Of course, some would see that as deliberate aggravation of both groups.
Isn't it wonderful to live in a country where a free exchange of ideas is the law of the land, if not the practice?