At 03:37 PM 6/1/99 +0000, Damien Broderick wrote (apparently) in a fit of paranoid hysteria:
> >At 09:57 PM 20/05/99 +0200, den Otter sig'd
> >
> >>"What I would most desire would be the separation of the white and black
> >races."
> >>(Spoken at Springfield, Illinois on July 17th, 1858; from Abraham Lincoln:
> >Complete
> >>Works, 1894, Vol. 1, page 273).
> >
> >I waited a while to see if a few people immediately and forthrightly
> >expressed their revulsion at this kind of sly, evil trolling.
> >before doing so myself because I'm probably pegged by many here as some
> >kind of censorious holier-than-thou meddler. Still, I have in mind the
> >dictum about evil prevailing when good men and women do nothing...
To which James Rogers <jamesr@best.com> duly responded:
> Actually, I think you misread the intent of the quote. This particular
> quote is often used as an ironic example of historical revisionism or
> perhaps cultural license. American cultural mythology paints Abraham
> Lincoln as a man whose great ambition was to end slavery and racism. In
> fact, he had no particular interest in these issues and only freed the
> slaves when it was to his political benefit. The only racism implied would
> be that of Lincoln.
> "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
-Lincoln
Note that people such as Mr.Broderick have devalued the term "racism" to a point where it has become little more than a brainless, meaningless knee-jerker. A word used by bullies to quickly stigmatize people & subjects and to stem all meaningful discussion (like "witch" in the Middle Ages and "communist" in the fifties). It's sad to see this kind of vile crap on a list that allegedly promotes intelligent, openminded discourse.