Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]f you have been following all the ludicrous discussion on this last over the past week of about Cosina, an eminent Japanese lens manufacturer, "hiding" behind the German name Voigtlander, and then consider how much time on the list was spent on non-photography issues, you'll realize that Phowhat was the shortened version of Photography what(?), and was not meant as an attack on Vietnamese. Serbo-Croation was pulled out of the air, and have just as easilly could have been any European, Eastern European, nation or people you choose to insert in its place. I am certainly sorry that you were personally offended, as I had no intention of offending anyone. - ----- However...I have no intention of apologizing here generally for what was a totally innocent joke. Those who wish to may irrationally and mistakenly call me any sort of bigot or racist they wish to. In doing so they only demonstrate how far the concept of free speech has deteriorated in the U.S. - I say in the U.S. because Slodoban Dimitrov apparently lives in Los Angeles where he is involved in the campaign against something he defines as "hate speech." I find it particularly ironic - and sad - that this exchange follows by only a few days the news stories about students on the campus of Brown, often described as the most "liberal" university in America, literally storming the student newspaper office because the newspaper published a full page ad arguing against reparations for slavery. If I have a lousy sense of humor, so be it. I do not happen to be racist, nor do I happen to be ethnocentric nor consider myself as an American of Russian-Romanian-Polish-German extraction somehow superior in any way to any member of any other nation. However, I am not going to get into some sort of pathetic, mewling, "some of my best friends are..." bullshit. I happen to think it is far more important to defend free speech - including free speech which some or all of the people - myself included - - may find ugly, demeaning, or degrading. Free speech is free speech is free speech - within the bounds laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court - and free speech is what has made it possible for the ":American Experiment" to survive these past 214 years. B. D. Colen Minh Thai wrote: > Do you have problem with Vietnamese people or you're hate us B.D? > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> > To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> > Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2001 8:33 PM > Subject: Re: [Leica] The scarcest resource on earth? > > >> You're joking, right? >> >> B. D. >> >> S Dimitrov wrote: >> >>> Now B.D. >>> >>> This isn't hate speech, is it? Don't let my having been a member of the >>> Hate Crime Response Coalition with the City of Los Angeles' Human >>> Relation Coalition influence you on how you answer this query. I'm all >>> ears on a clear explication of your comment below? >>> >>> Slobodan Dimitrov >>> >>> >>> "B. D. Colen" wrote: >>> >>>>> Gerry (who spends time working at photography rather than sniping at >>>> > others). > >>>>> Gerry Walden (UK) >>>>> Tel: (0)23 8046 3076 >>>>> Fax: (0)23 8034 8542 >>>> >>>> Phowhat? What is it you spend your time working at? Is that some >>>> Vietnamese lens manufacturer trying to pass itself off as >>>> Serbo-Croation?;-) >>>> >>>> B. D. >>>