What do you guys think of this?

[airprincess]

Let me just start out by saying, I'm NOT trying to stir things up. I read this and thought it brought up an interesting question. What are your opinins about this? Personally I think this man showed very poor judgement. I don't think it was wise to mass email it to the entire state house & senate. That doesn't make my opinion right, and I'm curious as to what you all think. Again, I'm NOT trying to start fights. We are adults and should be able to express our thoughts on this subject without flaming each other




Lawmaker Forwarded Racist E-Mail
The Associated Press
Aug 22 2001 6:40AM

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A state representative forwarded an e-mail to fellow lawmakers this week that claimed, ``Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity.''
Rep. Don Davis, a white Republican, said he received the letter Friday and forwarded it to every member of the state House and Senate. He said he didn't consider the letter racist.

``I just put it out for information. People can read into it whatever they want to,'' Davis said.

``There's a lot of it that's truth, the way I see it,'' Davis said. ``Who came to this country first - the white man, didn't he? That's who made this country great.''

The letter angered other lawmakers who considered it offensive and racist.

``It absolutely destroys the racial harmony that we are trying to foster in this state and in this nation,'' said Rep. William Wainwright, vice chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

Rep. Ron Sutton, the only American Indian in the General Assembly, said he had no use for such sentiments in the Statehouse. ``It just shows his white-supremacist, Gestapo mentality,'' Sutton said.

The address says the e-mail was sent to Davis from an Internet site called God's Order Affirmed in Love.

``Two things made this country great: White men & Christianity,'' the letter says. ``Every problem that has arrisen (sic) can be directly traced back to our departure from God's Law and the disenfranchisement of White men.''

The author says the country was founded on the Christian Bible and state laws based on the Ten Commandments, which contributed to the nation's early success. But now the nation is in decline, it says.

Davis, who sponsored legislation to post the Ten Commandments in public schools, said he agrees with at least some of it.

``Listen, there's nothing racist about it. And don't give me that mess,'' Davis said.

 

[dawnt91]

First of all, I can't believe someone in his position would send out something so obviously racist. Doesn't Davis hold an elected position? I can't imagine getting re-elected once that gets out. I guess he's forgetting that there were actually people here when the white man came over and started taking over the land.

Aside from the racist issue, I do tend to agree that a lot of what's bad in America stems from people falling away from God. But then you all know that I'm a Christian, and I think this is a very popular Chritian opinion.

And this guy can't be much of a Christian either. First of all, he believes in white supremecy, when God created all men (and women!) equal. Also, white men are not God's chosen people - that would be the Jews. Posting the 10 Commandments in schools is in direct violation of separation of church and state, and even if they did post them, they wouldn't make a difference if they weren't TAUGHT!

No matter what Davis says, this letter is completely racist. I don't see how someone could say otherwise. (Of course, this is just my opinion.)

 

[hissy]

I went to the website that was mentioned in your post. The entire website hiding behind the facade of God looks to me like a call for arms against a race war. There are articles targeting not only the black people, but also the Jews, and Asians. There is a line that is parroted over and over in many of the articles- "The White Men are what makes this Nation GREAT!" (Excuse me while I throw-up)

It is just another attempt of White Supremicist to try and invade the government with this hogwash. Anyone who didn't fall asleep in History classes in school knows that the white men were not the first people here, they were just the first aggressive race here. We seem to have this need to "conquer all" no matter the cost, and many cultures have fallen in that attempt. It is also true that our history classes were jaded and did not give the whole story of the corruptness that began this country. So don't anyone try and tell me how "great" the white man is. Once I got out of high school and went to college and developed independent thinking, I found out otherwise.

 

[debby]

Dawn....wow. I was getting ready to reply to this thread,...but then after reading your post, I realized anything else I said would be redundant. You said everything EXACTLY the way I would have!!!

*great minds think alike huh?*:tounge2:

 

[kittyfoot]

You know...I wish this whole idea of "race" would finally be discarded for once and for all. Every so-called "race" from whatever part of the world has been invaded/conquered/enslaved/raped/pillaged/and generally AFU'd by everyone else at some point in history.There has not been a PURE bloodline since Adam and Eve..or whomever/whatever you believe the first humans were. WE ARE ALL MUTTS PEOPLE...GET OVER IT!!!! The gene pool is getting deeper every day.

That being said..I'm a little weary of the other "politically correct" mantra that the white man is to blame for every evil in the world and needs to abjectly apologize to everyone who is looking for someone to blame. Sure we did things that are wrong by today's "standards"...but so has everybody else. There is absoloutely no group of people on the face of the earth which has not sought to increase it's borders/resource base usually at the expense of those who were already in residence.

More aggressive?? Ok..I'll buy that. All the Northern(white) races were belligerent..because they had to be to survive. Our climate is a ball of ice for at least 6 months of the year so we had to acquire the resources to feed ourselves in a very short time. A simple matter of racial survival..for lack of a better term. This basic need to assemble every thing you could so that your family/tribe could survive the harsh winter,I believe,evolved into simply gathering everything you wanted...to the point where you have today's individuals acquiring wealth far beyond anything they will EVER need.

The southern peoples,with their milder climates and more abundant foods(relatively speaking)were slower to develop these levels of aggression because they didn't need to. Bear in mind that they all had their own wars and invasions. Slavery and other repugnant practices are as old as man and as universal..they did not suddenly appear with the so-called White Man.

So let's get over the "It's Whitey's Fault" and all the other racial garbage and leave the past where it belongs..in the past. Live in to-day's world and build for the future.

This is MY opinion.

 

[topaz]

I agree with Dawn and Debby that 1) this man is a government official NOT showing much maturity; and 2) this hurts Christianity to link it with such racist attitudes.

As a Christian who takes Scripture very seriously, it worries me that people use the Bible so freely to endorse their issues. It is the word of God, not man.

Knowledge in the hands of the unintelligent is a very dangerous thing!

I'm glad to know there are very intelligent adults here who disregard such stuff.

 

[airprincess]

I really respect what you said. I may have missed the point though, do you think sending out the email was racist or not? Are people wrong about getting up in arms over him sending it, or was he wrong in sending it?

 

[Anne]

I think sending this email was good... That way this person has revealed his real opinions ands with any luck won't be re-elected. I don't know about the US, but here we have laws against this kind of thing. We have our share of racists for sure, but they're not allowed to say these things in public. The applicaton of the law is very liberal, so ordinary people can say all they want, but politicians and anyone in a public position will get kicked out for expressing racist opinions. I know that some European countries have similar laws.

Kittyfoot, you have a point there about not having to carry on a burden of guilt forever, because indeed practically every ethnic group has the potential (and most have carried it out at some point in history) to be aggressive and hurt others.

I do think though, that there are some issues which are unique phenomena in history, in terms of scale and intensity, and which should be treated as such. The enslavement of the Africans, which has resulted in a destruction of whole cultures and in so much death is one such case. I therefore feel that American officials should be more careful in the way they express themselves regarding the Afro-American people, much in the same way as I expect German officials to be more careful in the way they talk about Jews.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[threeleggedkat]

My opinion is that sending the e-mail was wrong; but he was within his rights, under the First Amendment, to send it. I am sure by now that even he feels it was a wrong (spur-of-the-moment) decision.

I do not support racism under any disguise! I was raised in the 60's and know, first hand, the consequences of racial prejudice. . . . .I am also descent of Native American Indians.

Have I been quilty of prejudice or telling a "racially slanted" joke or comment? Yes. Am I sorry for this? Indeed, YES! Do I pray every day not to be quilty of furthering prejudice or racism by my direct actions or words? Again, YES! Am I human? Thankfully, so. Will I "fall from grace" in the future? Regretably, YES; but intentionally I shall try not to. . . . . Of all the times in recorded history when man is mentioned as having seen God; I don't recall it EVER being mentioned what "color" or "nationality" or "denomination" he was. . . . . to

TLK

 

[debby]

Very well said, TLK!

 

[debby]

well, instead of just adding my agreement with what some of you have said, maybe I should also add in my own 2 cents worth.... so here goes.....

I hate racism. But I personally beleive their is as much of it going on from the African Americans as their is from the white people.
I guess what I mean is that it's not just the white people who seem prejudice. If I were to walk down the street in a black neighborhood, I might be okay, depending on what kind of people lived there, or I might be harrassed and victomized because of my skin color.
Same thing if a black person walked down the street in a white neighborhood.
We can't classify all blacks and all whites as the same.
This probably makes no sense....but what I mean is.....it depends on how a person is raised, and their morals, and what kind of a person they are deep down, not their skin color.
There are "bad" black people, and then there are "good" ones.
Same with the white people. I am just as terrified of a white supremist(sp?) as I am of a prejudist black person.

Prejudice of any kind is wrong.
And I guess in my opinion, that even means prejudice of Gays, although I do not agree with their lifestyles, I do not think it is our place to judge and criticsize. Judgement is mine sayith the Lord...and although I beleive the bible clearly speaks against homosexuality, it also clearly spoke against woman having any say whatsoever in religion, and of course now that has changed, we have many woman ministers, and I am NOT saying that God might think homosexuality is okay now, but I am just saying that things have changed alot from the old testiment, and we are not the ones to judge what he thinks is okay now and what isn't. That is HIS job!!

Wow, I am getting way of track here, aren't I??

Okay back to the racism issue....It is horrible what the white men did to blacks back in the slavery days, but that is done and over with, and unfortunately we cannot go back and change it, all we can do is go forward, and I think BOTH races, need to let go of the hate, and prejudice, and concentrate on being humans, not what color we all are.

 

[kittyfoot]

Debby (see I spelled it right this time)...YES!!!! I've met great people in the worst run-down areas and real scum in ritzy surroundings. There are good,bad and indifferent in all colours,races,religions and any other label you can name.Hopefully,one day we can all top blaming each other for our own shortcomings and get on with things. Or at least stop killing each other.

 

[alexnell]

Ditto to what others have said...
AND--
I am also deeply irritated that an elected official forwarded an E-mail with a typo in it. This dip is in charge of deciding how much funding schools get???? And he can't run a spell checker? I know I have typos in my posts to this site, but that's not government correspondence.