Posted by Racer on July 14, 2005, at 14:41:52
For some time, there's been something happening here on these boards that has very deeply and profoundly offended me. Up until now, I have not brought it up, in part because I felt as though it was my own, personal responsibility to protect myself from that upset by avoiding posts that might contain it, and in part because I knew that Dr Bob had read the posts in question and hadn't PBC'd the poster.
Now, though, I am asking about them. I have just hit critical mass in terms of how much I am willing to sit back and allow these posts to go unchallenged.
In a number of his posts, Lou Pilder has made references to what the Nazis did to the Jews. I read those posts as drawing analogies between what someone on these boards has written, and what the Nazis did. Those posts very deeply offend me, for personal reasons. I find them disrespectful to the memory of many people I loved as a child and still miss and mourn, and to the memory of many others I did not know. What they suffered was real, it was horrible beyond what any of us can really imagine, AND IT WAS CERTAINLY SOMETHING THAT DESERVES MORE RESPECT THAN TO USE IT TO ATTACK AN INNOCENT TURN OF PHRASE ON AN INTERNET BULLETIN BOARD!!!
After all the time I've been on these boards, how many times have any of you seen me get so upset that I fly off the handle? It's rare, isn't it? What's more, even when I get upset, have any of you EVER seen me get upset enough to complain to Dr Bob that someone has upset me with what he or she has written, and I want him to think about stepping in? This is the first time that I have expressed something this personal here, about something that someone else has written. I hope and I pray that it is the last time I will ever feel the need to do so.
Dr Bob, I am asking you to consider whether it is acceptable for Lou to post this sort of thing, due to the fact that -- far from "potentially" upsetting someone -- it DOES upset someone very profoundly.
I am also asking Lou Pilder to consider whether he really wants to cheapen the suffering of so many millions of human beings, people who were no less important to themselves than he is to himself, by comparing what happened to them with Dr Bob suggesting that some people might do best for themselves to avoid certain posts?
Here's a last thought, Lou: Suggesting that some people avoid certain posts -- even certain posters -- has NOTHING in common with boycotting Jewish shops. And I am absolutely outraged that you would suggest that it had.
poster:Racer
thread:527560
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050628/msgs/527560.html