From: radner@cray.com (Lauren Radner)
Subject: Re: The rat, MA, and others
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 18 Aug 92 12:43:29 CDT

In article <1992Aug17.133759.11439@relay.nswc.navy.mil> snorthc@nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt) writes:

>Hope you find humor, perhaps even insight in this :-)  Yes its true.


   Humour? Insight? I found only further insight into how you think.
   What you did makes me angry. If I'd been there you might not have 
   found it all so amusing.

>
>Sat. night, I was sitting in a doorway downtown just out of the rain,
>greeting people.  A rat runs out of the storm drain right towards me.
>I see him, jump up and try to soccer style *plant left-kick right*
>boot him into the street.  Rat does a 180, zips back into the storm
>drain, with me on his heels.  EVERYBODY else goes, what was that!! 

  Why is your instinctive reaction to kill one of God's creatures?
  Or perhaps it was not instinctive? Did you *intend* to kill this
  animal? Perhaps you only intended to cripple it? Did you "just"
  want to hurt it instead?

  Please help me with my "insight". Were you being thoughtless
  or cruel? It's hard for me to determine from the context.

  How would hou have felt if its limp little body smacked 
  satisfactorily against the wet pavement? Triumphant? That you, 
  who outweighed this creature by something like a mere factor 
  of at least 80:1, were able to kill, cripple, or injure 
  something that wasn't attacking? So much for your "Christianity".
  So much for your "martial arts".

  I remember once years ago at a college outting where we divided
  into discussion groups. One Fundamentalist fellow student was
  spouting and yelling at me for how cruel I was for not thinking
  that sending food to starving countries was a Good Thing. This
  was because I pointed out there was a lot of corruption and the
  local country officials were skimming goods off the top, selling
  them on the black market, pocketing funds, etc., and very little
  of the "relief" was actually making it to its intended recipients.
  He was incensed. He started spewing biblical quotes and invective 
  condemning me for not loving God's Creatures, etc., and actually
  started to get foam at the corners of his mouth. Meanwhile, I watched
  as a small ant travelled about its business near the foot of the
  tree where we were all sitting on the ground. At the height of this
  guy's incandescent condemnation of me for not caring about "God's
  Creatures" and "God's Innocents" he was absent-mindedly trying to
  squish this little ant with his thumb. He finally got it on the
  third or fourth try.

  I let him know what a hypocrite I thought he was in no uncertain
  terms. 

  Northcutt, I do not believe in "your" version of God, or any god,
  but *I* would not go out of my way to kill any living creature
  with the *occasional* exception of a mosquito who has just bitten
  me. I figure fair is fair. Your morality-mileage may vary. I watch
  where I step and have almost sprained my ankle twice over the years
  in my attempt not to squish something crawling in my path. If you
  attended a church where I was your minister, and I had been there
  when you gleefully tried to kill that animal, you would have been
  publicly chastised, and the next time you attended church you would
  have squirmed throughout the entire sermon. 

  I do not practice your martial art, nor agree with what leaks out
  from you as to its priorities, but I have yet to hear of a martial
  art that suggests casual aggression or the casual taking of a life
  for no reason is a Good Thing. If you were studying martial arts
  from me, and I had seen such an action on your part, you would 
  have risked losing your black belt until you learned respect for
  life. 
  
  I suppose now you will justify yourself with statements about the
  relative worthlessness of rats ( in YOUR opinion). I suppose you
  never would have leaped to your feet to do this to a Rottweiller
  puppy (because *these* Should Not Be Killed For No Reason according
  to YOUR value system).

  Who are you to judge? 

  What or who gives you the right to make such idle life and death 
  decisions about other living things?

  Here, try this one on for size, and maybe you will get a clue:

>
>Sat. night, I was sitting in a doorway downtown just out of the rain,
>greeting people.  A kitten runs out of the storm drain right towards me.
>I see him, jump up and try to soccer style *plant left-kick right*
>boot him into the street.  Kitten does a 180, zips back into the storm
>drain, with me on his heels.  EVERYBODY else goes, what was that!! 

  Well, perhaps my opinions have just amused the hell out of all
  of you, and that's just fine. Perhaps you will find "humor, 
  perhaps even insight" in my comments. I hope those of you who
  found humour, will someday find the insight.

  I am going out of town (to Japan) for the next 2 1/2 weeks, so
  don't waste your time flaming me for this one.
 
  I hope by the time I get back that this thread, and my rich disgust
  for anybody who could act the way you have, Stephen, or attempt to 
  defend such behaviour, will have died down.

-Lauren

Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts