Dear Ferret Folks-
 
How about we pause for a moment of calm and reflection here before things
spiral out of control, as they sometimes do on the FML.
 
We all get along pretty well, but e-mail is *not* like face to face
communication.  When I'm e-mailing on the FML you can't see my eyes, you
can't see what's in them, and thus I have to be extra careful what I say.
Especially when I say something critical of another's facts or opinions.
Some of us are more careful than others, and I certainly don't get it
right all of the time, but I am mindful that it is *so* easy for people
to get hurt and angry via e-mail.  It is *so* easy for someone who is
frustrated or offended to type angry words that they would not say face
to face, if they had the benefit of seeing another's eyes, the cast of
his face, his tone of voice, etc.
 
Humor is just as hard to convey as criticism, sometimes, especially when
we veer into areas that could possibly offend people, as Gordon did the
other day.  Re-read his post about "Irish Ferrets" in a blow-hard's
arrogant voice and it might possibly come across as a bit nasty.  Read
it agian in what I consider to be be Gordon's *true* voice, (which I hear
from long experience of his postings to this forum), one that is good
natured and open-hearted, and it becomes something else entirely.
 
There is a HUGE difference between an ethnic stereotype and an ethnic
slur.  One of my grandfathers, sadly, was a no-holds barred rascist
bigot.  His speech was peppered with words and expressions that our
moderator simply wouldn't allowed posted here.  Period.  I'm not even
going to try to include them in my post..You cannot say the things that
my grandfather said about Jews and African Americans and the Irish in
Gordon's good natured and open-hearted voice.  If you heard them come
out of your children's mouths, most of you would absolutely FLIP OUT.
It would be time for some militant parenting.  It would be a parental
*emergency*.
 
In this day and age of "political correctness" it's probably not a good
idea to speak in terms of ethnic stereotypes, as Gordon did, but my
criticm of his judgement in sending his "Irish Ferrets" post wouldn't
\o so far as to label his remarks as a bunch of "ethnic slurs." I've
heard those, the real McCoy, spoken by a man who kept loaded guns around
his house in case people whose skin was a different color than his came
to the door.  And they don't sound a bit like what Gordon said.  My
grandfather (Harvard educated, not a "stereotypical" rascist red neck)
was a great, shining example of who and what not to be.  He taught me
well.  I kind of wish he were still around to correspond with Mr.
Orlando, so he could learn what real racial hatred and intolerance sounds
like.  *That's* the stuff that we need to rip up and stamp on until it's
dead, dead, dead as a society, and baby, I know it when I hear it.
 
I have never heard it on the FML.
 
Alexandra in MA
(Russian, and yeah, does have a thing for cabbage and borchst and vodka.
Just not mixed *together*.)
[Posted in FML issue 5298]