On Fri, 14 May 1999 02:26:20 -0400, Ray E. Harrell wrote:
> One point in all of this is that as an immigrant New Yorker
> I am prone to cynicism around the ability of
> Europeans to live together, (one war every 25 years for
> the past 1000 years). e.g. From the usefulness of the window
> shutters in Geneva, with the guns and one month food
> supply required by law in the basement, to the doors on
> new apartments in Milan that are made of steel with
> steel rod bolts going in four directions to keep out marauding
> armies.
Funny, but here in Europe we don't have an army that has bombed 21 countries
during the last 50 years (without having been attacked once). We also don't
have the high rates of murder and prisoners that your peaceful country has.
Nor do we need metal detectors in our schools to protect the kids from
each other, or security guards on our campus to prevent the kids from
massacrating their peers on Hitler's birthday. We also don't have
militia-men who kill dozens of civilians by blowing up a gov't building.
Geez, we don't even have racial riots in large cities after some state
officers have beaten up a citizen for his race.
But I'm sure we'll have all that pretty soon if we follow the lead of your
peace-loving and tolerant country, Ray.
> You see I live in NYCity and we take a rather jaundiced
> look at people who gather together to kill their neighbors or
> steal their homes.
Jaundiced indeed for a city that was built on just that.
Greetings from a multi-cultural European country
that had _2_ short (defense) wars in the last 500 years
(but I guess this can't be read in your informative NYT),
Chris
