Ubuntu & the underdeveloped world

[Travis Newman]

s.roman wrote:
> I guess according to your logic, any US resident is imperialistic and
> evil. Way to generalize.

You're the one generalizing here. He said that all the snide comments he 
got were from American domains, YOU put the words into his mouth that 
all Americans are imperialistic and evil. He was just making a point and 
you honestly are helping him along with his point. I've spoken with him 
in private many times and he's not one to generalize about things of 
this nature. Don't get me wrong, there's no affiliation of any kind 
between us, I just think people are hammering him for expressing his 
beliefs and opinions, and as Americans we SHOULD be standing up for 
everyone's rights and freedoms, but do we? Rarely. Just recently in a 
public opinion poll, something like 55% of Americans said that Arab and 
Muslim people's rights should be limited to help weed out the terrorists 
in the bunch. Another American pundit was quoted as saying that it's 
unfortunate that all Muslims are viewed as terrorists, but that's not 
the case, he said. Then I was thinking "finally, someone said that" but 
he proceeded to say that the unfortunate fact of the matter is that all 
terrorists are Muslims! Anyone remember Timothy McVeigh? How about the 
Waco cult? American culture is a very spoonfed culture, and anything 
outside the comfort zone is evil to most Americans. I'm going a little 
off topic here.

My point is, regardless of your views, don't be skeptical and demeaning 
towards others views. Shango IS right that it seems that mostly 
Americans shoot him down and belittle him, but he's not saying that all 
Americans are imperialistic bigots. Please notice that I'm not taking 
sides on the topic that Shango brought up, because that doesn't matter 
to my point. I'm merely supporting his right to have his opinions. To 
paraphrase a quote from The American President, you have no right to 
salute the American flag unless you can stand up for someone else's 
right to burn that flag in protest. Don't get me wrong here. I DO love 
America, and I do consider myself patriotic because I stand up for the 
values held by the Constitution that the country was founded on.

In closing, Shango is a user of Ubuntu Linux. He had an issue that he 
thought was appropriate for this list, and he's admitted that in 
hindsight, it wasn't the best place for it. Can we all please stop 
berating his views and move on? If you have your own views, great. This 
thread has gone on way after Shango said himself it shouldn't have, so 
what's a few more? Just present them in a responsible and adult manner, 
and have conversation and debate, but not argument. Arguments start 
wars, conversations start friendships.