Re: Intolerance and Indifference

January 1, 2002

Mr. Buckley,

Quite simply my concern was not one of religious tolerance (or

intolerance). Rather it was a concern about a person SPAMMING many Yahoo

lists.

As a member of a non-majority religion in this country (I'm Jewish),

I am very concerned about religious tolerance. However, I'm also concerned

about the amount of spam posted on the Yahoo groups lists. At least Ron's

stuff is related to health care. I'm not sure where the connection is

between Islam and EMS issues.

-Wes Ogilvie

January 1, 2002

America isn't easy...it's advanced citizenship. Freedom isn't merely the

ability to say what you want, it is the ability for someone to speak at the

top of his voice in favor of a subject that you would argue against at the

top of yours.....

Tolerance is NOT a measurement of freedom. Tolerance is a measure of

political correctness....please do not get the two confused.

" If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise,

we don't believe in it at all. "

-- Noam Chomsky

" I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your

right to say it. "

-- Voltaire

The folks who spoke out against posting Islamic information to an EMS list

have as much right to speak out against it being posted as you do to defend

it and the poster did to post it.....I believe that is precisely the point

Voltaire was trying to make.

Happy New Year

God Bless America and lets hope we don't lose as many of us this year as we

did last!

Dudley Wait

January 1, 2002

Did you even READ the header line? This was sent as SPAM - to multiple

groups. This was NOT a list member posting an opinion. And while Ron's

posts may not be EMS related, they are usually emergency service, medical or

politically related. This was just another piece of SPAM, like porno site

advertisements (although it could be argued that this raping of the islamic

image through sending off-topic spam was close!). Yahoo! doesn't need to

ban them, but I'd like to see an " approval " process for people signing up -

a moderated approval process. Not so you could turn anyone away, but to

prevent the " sign up, send spam, unsubscribe " kind of crap you see here.

Calm down and enjoy the list, and as always, express your opinion. Who

knows, I might even agree with you once in a while...

Mike

Intolerance and Indifference

> It makes me sick to see the attitudes on this board. In the space of

> a few hours, some of you have demonstrated an attitude that flies in

> the face of what you seek to defend...FREEDOM. It is no coincidence

> that the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of

> America states:

>

> " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

> or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of

> speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to

> assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. "

>

> These thoughts were at the forefront of the minds of our founding

> fathers. That is one of the prime reasons that this great nation was

> founded!!!

>

> Obviously, asking Yahoo to remove a message that details some of the

> beliefs of the Islamic faith does not constitute a violation of the

> Constitution. Why? Because Yahoo is not the government. However,

> the spirit behind those words in the Bill of Rights should be

> practiced by everyone and certainly, by those who yell so loudly

> about the attacks on September 11th being an attack on our freedom

> and way of life. They were. One of the reasons that the United

> States is so hated is because of what we stand for.

>

> What really bugs me is dozens of people will come to the defense of

> and others who post lots of messages that have nothing

> whatsoever to do with the practice of EMS in Texas and few show him

> the disrepect that has been shown today. One person today posted a

> message asking about online grocery coupons and nobody has slammed

> them.

>

> Why????

>

> Because you are too damned ignorant to spend anytime exploring other

> folks' beliefs. The person who posted the message " What is Islam? "

> and the subsequent ones was attempting to educate (I presume). What

> did they get? " Move along. Nothing to see here. " If you folks

> would stop for a moment you would realize that there is very little

> fundamental difference between Christianity (I assume the religion of

> the folks that were so disrespectful) and Islam. They both believe

> in a supreme being, serving that supreme being (by the way both

> religions agree on who that being is) in this life, answering for

> sins and enjoying a good afterlife as long as you conducted yourself

> according to certain principles in this life. For that matter,

> Judaism is close to this as well.

>

> I'm not well versed in any of this. I'm no expert. What I am is

> tolerant. I certainly show no disrespect to others' religions,

> especially if I know nothing about them.

>

> I will leave you with the following quotations about free speech and

> hope that you will think about them in the coming times. We have a

> long road ahead of us in our fight against terrorism. Let these two

> ideas be part of the compass that guides us during our crisis.

>

> " If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise,

> we don't believe in it at all. "

> -- Noam Chomsky

>

> " I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your

> right to say it. "

> -- Voltaire

>

> Buckley

>

January 1, 2002

What the f***? Take a xanax