Re: for H.S. band directors


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Posted by Mark on January 15, 2003 at 04:14:26:

In Reply to: for H.S. band directors posted by anti - N.E.A. on January 14, 2003 at 20:23:45:

If I have learned anything from living in D.C. for 14 years it's that anything you say can have it's content completely rearranged by the end of the day. You can say "I like ice cream a lot" and someone will report that "you like ice cream, no comment on gumdrops, status of sweet tarts in question." Of course you never mentioned gumdrops or sweet tarts, but it can be twisted into that since you say you like ice cream so much and that it is so different from gumdrops and sweet tarts that the reporter/commentator would question how you could like something so different from ice cream.(Whew!)

I have read this article and the NEA's original post. Among many other accusations that were implied in this article that I find questionable, I never thought that the NEA was implying to blame Americans for 9/11. I read that the intent was clearly to do what Pres. Bush and many other leaders have publicly stated that we as Americans should not hold Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent as a whole responsible for this tragedy. That we as Americans need to blame the true culprits and not our neighbors who happen to be Muslim.

I do think we as Americans should always read what someone is attacking before accepting the critic's point of view. I do think responsible reporting is often replaced with twists of statements to make us watch more and want to hear more comment. Or worse, opinion articles purposely attempt to paint a group/individual/cause in a way completely away from their intent because that opinion article's author/group/cause doesn't agree with them and uses the initial writer's own words completely out of context to form a picture of hate, mistrust or, in this case, lack of patriotism. Controversy sells and also confuses.

The only thing I am saying is that we all need to be very responsible before placing blame when it comes to what people write and say and then we will have a true personnal opinion on this article and not a mere reflection of what one person thinks simply because we heard that first.

Even though I am not the biggest supporter of the NEA, I do not believe this opinion article from this source has much integrity.

Thanks for asking,

Mark


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