jmm@bonnie.UUCP (Joe Mcghee) (09/20/84)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Trisha says, > For what it's worth, the only reason I used "Eire" in that sentence > at all was to vary the terminology somewhat, having used "Ireland" > several times already. I was truly amazed that jmm took it as an > insult. I was never insulted by your use of this word. My mention of it was probably the least important comment in my entire article. Your failure to deal with the many more important points that I raised indicates that you cannot respond to the facts I presented and so you are trying to divert attention from them by making a mountain out of a molehill on the point you find the least disagreeable to talk about. > Actually I'm truly amazed that jmm takes all of this so personally as he > admits to not being Irish or having Irish ancestors. Why do you say that I take a particular world problem "personally". Would you say I was taking it personally if I spoke out on the Philipines, Grenada, El Salvador, Nicaragua? Every man/woman is my brother/sister and I take an interest in other people's suffering, especially if the solution seems to be very easily obtainable by the application of known principles such as freedom, self determination and territorial integrity. One reason why I became interested in the situation in Northern Ireland is that when I first heard about the protest marches for equal voting and housing rights, I couldn't believe that such a situation could exist in Britain in the twentieth century. I was somewhat biased against the Irish people and I decided to go to Ireland on my next vacation. On arrival there (July, 1971) I headed straight for Northern Ireland. What I saw there and in England changed my whole way of thinking about England and Ireland. I had guns pointed at me by British troops, and I was run off the road in one small town by a truckload of Scottish troops who seemed hell-bent on harassing the local population at any price. For comparison I have worked in Newark, New Jersey at the time of racial riots there and I also served as a member of the National Guard. My experiences were confirmed by the experiences of others. One engineer with whom I worked at ITT told me that during his visit to Northern Ireland he was stopped at a roadside checkpoint. The soldier/policeman put a rifle barrel a couple of inches from his face and said "What do you mean coming here with a car like that?" Amazed, he asked "What are you talking about?" The guard said "Your license plates have the letters A-R-I!" He said "And what does that mean?" The guard said "That's IRA spelled backwards!" Not daring to tell this armed ape what was really going through his mind, he said "I have no control over what license plates are issued to me." The guard said "Well you'd better take this car back and don't dare to bring a car like that here again!" Sadly this is an all too typical example of the attitude and intelligence of government troops in Northern Ireland. Within the past few weeks five Americans were injured in an incident in which a 22 year old husband and father was shot dead by the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Why did they shoot him? They said he had a stick in his hand! Pictures printed in the London Daily Mail show that at the instant the man was shot, 2 RUC men were standing within an arm's length of him (fully helmeted and protected by bullet-proof vests) and could have easily restrained him. A third, the RUC man who killed him, was only 5 feet away! > The situation in South Africa is ten times worse than that existing in > Northern Ireland -- And is directly attributable to the mismanagement and racial policies of the British government which administered that country for such a long period of time. I have spoken to others in private mail about South Africa within the past few weeks. Of course everyone in America, or at least my part of it, is only too aware of the terrible problems there. Asians there have only just been given the right to vote. They haven't made much progress since Gandhi was fighting British government attempts to treat Asians as slaves without chains before the turn of the century. But the situation in Northern Ireland is almost unknown in America. I'm not talking about the distortions that come to us on the nightly news. I mean THE REAL TRUTH. If the real truth were told about Nothern Ireland in America foreign aid to England would be severely restricted or totally cut off and a British withdrawal would be forced by public opinion. > if he wants to get personally involved in other people's crises, why not > take that on instead; or for that matter, confine his attention to the > problems existing here at home. These are my people, because all Celts share a common culture and heritage. If this were understood by all Celts, Scots and Welshmen wouldn't allow themselves to become murderers for the British government. I have been very active in opposing the placing of toxic waste facilities in the densely populated areas of Northern New Jersey. One reporter in the local newspaper wrote an editorial congratulating me for my success in that area. I also volunteered my skills as a programmer and engineer to organizations working on the problem of missing children in America. I offered my help to the two largest organizations in that area. They turned me down because they said the U.S. government was giving them all the help they needed with the establishment of computer facilities. Recently I have also been working on the renovation of facilities at Lazarus House in New York City. Lazarus House is a residence for young men from broken homes who would otherwise be on the streets and in trouble in the city. That's what I've done. What have you done Trisha? TALK IS CHEAP! Furthermore I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to be dictated to by you or any other self-appointed censor/inquisitor who would tell me what I am allowed to think about or be concerned about. If you want that kind of job you'd better join the British government or go to the Soviet Union. bonnie!jmm J. M. McGhee "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson
garret@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (Trisha O Tuama) (09/27/84)
***** Well, what can you expect from a man whose son has the highest IQ in the Whippany Day School for Retarded Children; the poor child obviously inherited his intelligence from his mother. jmm, you once suggested to me that "we should learn to take ourselves less seriously." I'm not going to bother with your articles any more because, quite frankly, you take yourself, Ulster, and the British government much more seriously than a) I have any wish to; or b) 95% of the Irish population. Besides, meaningful dialogue with you does not seem to allow for valid differences of opinion -- which makes trying to have a discussion with you pretty tiresome. I have never tried to "dictate" anything to you -- all I did was point out that there is another side to the Irish question. Your response that I should go join the British government or the Soviet Union is typical of the inane sputterings of ill-educated and intolerant red-necks. Even I would have thought you could do better than that. Princess Patricia
yee@ucbvax.ARPA (Peter E. Yee) (09/29/84)
Has anyone considered renaming this group net.flame.celts? Do I remember hearing something about discussions of Celtic culture, music, language, etc, when this group was created? It seems to have degenrated to the level of net.flame... No apologies to net.flamers. -Peter Yee ..ucbvax!yee yee@Berkeley.ARPA