From: pellouch@alumni.cs.colorado.edu (Philip Pellouchoud)
Subject: My last word on ..."You be the Judge!"
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 07:15:46 GMT

I am growing quite tiresome of the insult trading, so this will be my
last post concerning the topic of MLK's Holiday.

Peter Wung writes...
> Given what you have said in the posting, I surmised that you felt Dr.
> King was undeserving of the attention he was receiving.

Hm...  I don't recall implying, implicitly or explicitly that Dr. King
was undeserving of the attention he was receiving.  If that's what you
surmised then perhaps I did a poor job in writing my discussion topic.
Trust me, I think Dr. King was one of the greatest Americans to ever
live, BLACK OR WHITE!  But I am certainly not naive enough to believe
he was the ONLY one.  In an attempt to understand how Peter surmised
that I was suggesting MLK was undeserving of the attention he was
receiving, I include the article again, trying to find out what exactly
led him to believe this.

# Not to ruffle any feathers, but here's an interesting point that a cohort
# brought up to me at work.  We have MLK day, but we don't have any

Let's see, I think I'm pretty safe here, especially since I prefaced this
entire post with "an interesting point that a COHORT brought up at work"

# days celebrating any specific american caucasions (or should I say
# caucasion americans, or american-ca to be politically correct!  :)

Let's see, I DID say SPECIFIC caucasion americans, so i guess that
rules out Presidents day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, St. Patricks Day, etc...
And I don't seem to make any mention of MLK not deserving the attention
he's getting...

# We have Columbus, who I suppose we could give honorary citizenship,
# but he was really an Italian, and not only that, but the AIM organization
# is trying to get that one abolished.

Let's see, I'm simply stating a fact about Columbus and the holiday dedicated
to him.  Certainly can't see how anyone could imply that Im saying MLK
doesn't deserve the recognition he deserves from that...

# So what's the deal?  Yeah, we've got Lincolns birthday, and Washingtons
# birthday, but no one celebrates those.  Schools aren't closed (at least
# most!), most businesses aren't closed, etc...  What's the story here?

I was corrected here by several posters noting that their company tooks
off both of these presidents days off, but not MLK.  I still believe
however that the majority of businesses/institutions, government or
otherwise do the opposite.  Note that this is just an impression, perhaps
statistics will bear out a different reality.  In any event, if you want
to extrapolate that I implied MLK was undeserving of the attention he got
from this passage, you'll really have to pinpoint for me what phrase caused
it, because after reading it and re-reading, I sure don't get that
opinion.

# I mean we certainly have plenty of caucasion americans to "celebrate."
# Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, etc...  But we don't
# none of them have their own celebrated/nationally recognized holiday?
# Help me out fellow netters, what's the deal?

Here I simply state that there are caucasions who made great contributions
to the American society.  This DOES NOT IMPLY that MLK DOESN'T DESERVE
THE ATTENTION HE'S GETTING.  All it means is that there are some caucasions
who made a significant contribution to America.  Unless you are REALLY
REALLY REALLY trying to read something into it.

# -Phil

Well that's just my name, I can't help it if those four letters in themselves
incite some kind of feeling that I have animosity towards MLK .

# ps. Don't  answer if you're going to give some emotional half baked
#     response, I'd rather not waste the bandwidth, and NO, I don't
#     belong to the Neo-nazis, KKK, or any other white facist group!

Let's see, there's NOTHING in these last few statements that would suggest
ANYTHING about MLK.

Well, giving it he onceover, I really am dumbfounded as to what exactly it
was that gav you the impression that I thought MLK was undeserving of the
attention he received.  Actually it's quite the contrary, I would never
in a million years think of forgetting him, or forgetting what his
contributions were to the civil rights movement.  When I first was required
to read his "I have a dream" speech in high school, my jaw dropped to the
floor in awe.  The next day I ran to the library to rent the video tape of him
giving the speech.  There is no question in my mind that he was one of
the greatest american civil rights leaders of our time (or EVER for that
matter).  My point is though, that while he is a great great great man,
he AIN'T THE ONLY ONE!

Peter Wung writes...
# I do not believe I misrepresented what you have said, it is you who
# neglected to write what you mean.  Perhaps this was an intentional
# evasion of your true intent,

My only true intent was to open a dialogue o the discussion of something
that I found to be curiously true (from my vantage point).  if you garnered
any other so-called "intent" then I must inform you that it was either
purely coincidental, or YOU HAVE A DAMN GOOD IMAGINATION!


I always think it's kinda funny how some people are "screaming their lungs" out
in a cry of desperation how they are being treated, while at the same
time treatiing others that way.  There are those who believe that
"White is Right" and yes, they are the REAL enemy, and there are also those
who believe "White is Wrong" who are EQUALLY as much the enemy to MLKs
dream.  The reality is "White is White" nothing more, nothing less. MLK
talked about blacks and whites walking HAND IN HAND, not segregationalist
mentality that sees the white man as THE ENEMY!  And yes, HELL yes, we've
got a damn long way to go, but it ain't gonna help if people keep hating
an entire race.  Whether it be whites hating blacks, or blacks hating
whites.

Because I mentioned that a cohort brought up an interesting point about the
lack of singular caucasion male holidays DOES NOT IN ANY WAY imply that
I hate MLK, that I despise MLK, or that I think he's undeserving of the
attention he's getting.  For you, Mr. Peter Wung to jump to that conclusion
is just plain WRONG, simple as that, WRONG!

Enuf said about this topic, let's get on with it!

-Phil

ps. Much gratitude to those who responded in disagreement with me but attempted
    to substantiate their claims with specific examples rather than some
    totally irrational outburst.  It gave me renewed hope that this newsgropu
    can be a forum for the exchange of ideas and the intelligent discourse
    that SOMETIMES accompanies them.
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