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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Flag Waver Speaks Out
Message-ID: <449@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Dec-83 14:00:42 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.449
Posted: Wed Dec 14 14:00:42 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Dec-83 03:14:53 EST
References: <416@pyuxa.UUCP>, <383@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 26

Wrong Rich, what Genji was doing was putting down Decot's feelings.
A persons feelings or beliefs are not open game for belittling
in any society.  What you feel about patriotism is your business
and yours alone.  I refuse to to put you down for your beliefs.
I will however challange any man's right to put another man's
beliefs up to ridicule.  More religeous hatred has been spawned
over just this attitude than any other thing.

Genji could have just as easily indicated how he/she felt about
patriotism without derriding Decot's experience in such a hostile
manner.  Genji was attacking Decot on a personal plane instead of
trying to present a rational argument for his/her own feelings
on the subject.  ATTACKING A PERSONS PERSONAL BELIEFS IS
IMMATURE AND ONLY REFLECTS BACK ON THE ATTACKER. 

By the way, intimating that someone who is patriotic is a fascist
goes beyond the bounds also.  I doubt that the brave soldiers
killed in battle in Isreal, who had their national flag draped
over their coffins while their kin were kissing that flag, were
fascists.  Think about what symbols represent, not what seems
to be the current policy in vogue in a country.  Symbols can
be reminders of good things, otherwise why would we keep the
cross or Star of David as reminders of what they represent.

T. C. Wheeler