Brit Rant: The Other Harry: PLEASE READ

[Steve]

Given some of the responses to my post, it's clear I could have
written it with a little more tact and sensitivity, so I want to take
this opportunity to make a few things crystal clear.

1.) It was NOT my intent to in anyway demonize the British. 

Well, yes to demonizing the British Tabloid Press, but no to
demonizing the people or country.

I was simply creating an illlustrative perspective. Showing that
anything and anyone can be made to appear bad if you adopt a
sufficienlty inflamed and out of proportion perspective. 

The very things I said about the British, with slight revision for
details, could be said about any country or historical organization in
existence. With a sufficiently inflamed perspective I could demonize
the Boy Scouts, Barney-the Dinosaur, Teletubbies, or even Harry
Potter, all of which, by the way, has been done by some aspect of the
media.

2.) I was in NO WAY minimizing what happened to the Jews and/or to
other people under the Nazis.

Without a doubt, the Nazis were quite hysterically and delusionally
irrational and psychotic. Germany is the only country I know of that
has suffered mass insanity twice in one century. What they did was
unbelievably horrible. 

Again, don't get me wrong, I not demonizing the Germans as a whole,
either across a wide expanse of history, or in modern times. Also,
they are certainly not the only country in the world to have 'popped
their cork', we've all had our historical bouts of irrational
thinking. I've been to Germany, and they are wonderful, generous,
friendly, fun loving people, and the food and drink are great (and
cheap too).

3.) I did NOT say or imply that what Prince Harry did was nothing.

Again, I was making a plea for reasonable proportion and perspective.

What Harry did was in very poor taste. But I think his apology and his
father's punishment were sufficient to deal with the situation. Harry
was made to clean manure out of the pig pens on his father's farm. 

One thing I do like about both Harry and William is that neither of
them seem to be afraid of hard work.

4.) Finally, NO Photo = No Problem...

This whole overblown controversy only exists because a photo exists
that the media can use to splash across the front page in order to
sensationalize the story.

There is a valid story, but lacking that photo this would have
garnered very little media attention. I'm not saying no attention, but
much less and in a much more reasonable perspectve and reasonable
proportion.


In two separate posts in the original thread, I thought I did a
reasonably good job of clarifying my point.

Date:  Tue Jan 18, 2005  3:19 am
Subject:  Re: Brit Rant: The Other Harry - Big TO DO...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/25727

Date:  Wed Jan 19, 2005  11:58 am
Subject:  Re: Brit Rant: The Other Harry - Seeking Perspective
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/25759

I hope that puts to rest any controversy I many have created.

Steve/bboyminn