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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael M who wrote (56542)	9/30/1999 4:03:00 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

A little bit different- although i personally feel the Revolutionary War was fought for quite different reasons than the ones they give you in elementary school. We would have become much more independent with or without the war. Now, as for segregation- no infrastructure problems- at least not the kind that Russia faced where there was hardly ANY framework on which to hang a new kind of government. With segregation, and even the ending of slavery- you were tweaking a PART of a civilization- NOT changing it completely. And of course the north already had no slavery- so it would be analogous ot having half of Russia already successfully free, democratic and capitalistic- not the case. Your analogies suck.

To: Michael M who wrote (56542)	9/30/1999 9:30:00 PM
From: Edwarda	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 108807

X has already answered a great deal, although I should not go so far as to say that "your analogies suck." BTW, and this is also for X, the Emancipation Proclamation applied only to the slaves in the South; it was a bit of diplomatic maneuvering. Slavery did exist in the North and the proclamation did not apply to slaves in the North. It is a worthwhile exercise to go back and read the actual document. Surprisingly often, the "right" things happen for all the "wrong" reasons and in ways that cause deep dislocations in even the most stable of societies because of all the "loopholes" that spring up. Think back, for an interesting example, of how the person who is now known as St. Paul could claim Roman citizenship and the right, therefore, to be tried in Rome for "crimes" committed locally. I thoroughly agree with your cogent observation that life is not a dress rehearsal. However, keep in mind that it is not always the consensus that "this is the right thing to do." All too often, it is political and economic exigencies that dictate policy, rather than a sense of what is right, decent, whatever. Sometimes, we are lucky enough to stumble onto goodness in the process. Do I sound like a cynic? I have to be. I am an historian by training and professionally I must be one. In answer to your question, sometimes there is no alternative--or, at least, no politically acceptable alternative. As Steven and I have mentioned on this thread, there are so many resources available on the Internet to see other points of view; yet so few people seem to take advantage of them when they are aligning politically or looking at the situations in Kosovo, East Timor, Chechen, Taiwan.... I could go on; the list is endless. As Steven observed, even when people look, they tend to focus on what confirms their own view rather than use the information from multiple sources to begin to form and refine a view. Forgive me, I ramble....