Well, I just spent an interesting (and frustrating) half-hour with this paper's response board.
In my usual long-winded manner, I posted:
"I guess the reporter, Mark Reynolds, was trying to strike a balance here between smarmy empathy and the hard facts. He missed it though, with the statement, "And in a city where some residents are willing to use guns for self-protection . . .".
Against an armed robber, what would he prefer? If you are unarmed, you are depending upon the mercy and sanity of a person who thinks that life-threatening violence is a resonable method of raising money.
Then we have, "the story told by Grant's family suggests not all robbers are as menacing as they look."
Ye Gods, the Westside merchant was staring down the barrel of a sawed off rifle! From personal experience, I will tell you that when you're on the wrong end of a gun, that barrel looks as big at a garbage can. The robber could look like Jesus Christ and I would still shoot him in this kind of scenario.
"His intentions were not to hurt anyone," said Grant's father, Warren L. Grant Sr., who said his son was trying to get money to pay his rent. "That was the motive behind it."
Ye Gods again! Are we now expected to have ESP in these situations? When has the seriousness of pointing a gun at someone because you need money become conditional upon YOUR need?
As a parent, I allow that the father's grief gave birth to these mind-boggling statements.
On the other hand, we have this gem, "Mr. Patrick . . . doesn't blame Prime Stop staff for what happened, but he's concerned about a hard-line attitude that seems to be pervasive."!!
If Mr. Patrick ever stared down a gun barrel and wondered if he was going to die, I suspect he might take a "hard-line attitude" himself. The old phrase "A liberal is a conservative who hasn't been mugged." comes to mind."
When I tried to post, I got this reply: "Error. Your message appears to contain language that our users might find offensive. Please clean up your message and re-post it."
CLEAN IT UP?? Nothing was highlighted, and even when I changed "shoot him" to "fire", I still got the same message.
So, I wrote the editor: "I tried posting a comment about the Feb. 13 article "Man's crime tinges mourning for family".
Here is what I tried to post: [post above]
I got the following message: [error message above].
Since I quoted some passages from the article, I'm at a loss as to where I've
erred. Please enlighten me via email.
Then I go to the message board and read this
gem from J. Busch: "The NRA is to blame for this mans death. When are we going to wake up Amerika?!"
I replied: "The NRA is to blame for this??? Please enlighten us just how. "Amerika" will surely be spelled that way if it's citizens are disarmed. Evidently it is spelled "La-La Land" where Mr. Busch lives."
I got the "clean up your post" message again.
Instead of "Oatka" I used my real name, and that message FINALLY went through. Evidently "Oatka" offends the Florida Times Union [in more ways than one
]
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited February 13, 2000).]