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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:04 PM
Original message
Check out this email I received...how would you respond?
Written by an Australian Dentist...
To Kill an American





You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)

"An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Amer icans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!

As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.

The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.



Please keep this going!
Pass this around the World
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Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:05 PM
Response to Original message
1. More pure bullshit. Never happened.
Redstone
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:07 PM
Response to Original message
2. That's a pre-9/11 mentality
We don't have those values anymore.

And we don't care if the rest of the world loves us anymore.

Our new foreign policy is "Bring it on."

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NMDemDist2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:07 PM
Response to Original message
3. I'd send it on
:evilgrin:
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Beaverhausen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
4. took 5 seconds to find it debunked on Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/america2.htm

please people- search it for yourselves first. :eyes:
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
5. Snopes.com is your friend
Claim: A piece defining "What is an American?" was penned by an Australian dentist.

Status: False.

Example:

More:
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/america2.htm

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opiate69 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
6. Send them this link
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/america2.htm

And tell them that if they're going to continue spreading bald-face lies, you're going to make sure they're signed up to receive spam frm every porn site on the 'net.
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:11 PM
Response to Original message
7. Send it to Chain Letters Anonymous


You receive an e-mail chain letter, and you know you shouldn't forward it to ten of your friends: they'll curse your name for clogging up their mailboxes and for wasting Internet bandwidth. But you don't want the bad karma that they say comes from breaking the chain...

At Chain Letters Anonymous, we understand the anxiety of breaking the chain. We want to help you overcome "forward-button addiction" and the superstitious intoxication that brings computer networks to a crawl.

Not everyone has the strength to quit cold turkey, and we fully understand. To help you gradually stop sending chain letters, volunteers at Chain Letters Anonymous are available 24-hours a day in case you "fall off the inbox" and really, really need to send a chain letter to ten of your friends.

But if you don't get help from us, please, please, do not send that chain letter to anyone else.



More:
http://www.csicop.org/chain/
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:40 PM
Response to Reply #7
12. Gee, what a great organization!
Edited on Thu Apr-06-06 08:40 PM by NCevilDUer
I'm going to forward the link to ten of my friends, and ask each of them to pass it on to ten of their friends, with requests to do the same. In no time at all we will free the internet from obnoxious chain letters!

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:
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WePurrsevere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:15 PM
Response to Original message
8. Per Snopes: Original written by an American & called "What is an American"
It was written by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law and published in the National Review on Sept 25, 2001.

Link to original: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-ferrara092501.shtml
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connecticut yankee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:21 PM
Response to Original message
9. I'd send them
the Snopes link.

I do that every time I get one of these "Urban Legends."

I'd also copy the rest of the respondents.
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linazelle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:38 PM
Response to Original message
10. Thank you all for the guidance. I'm sending the group of about 50 the
Snopes info.

Appreciate the help. :hi:
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Beelzebud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:39 PM
Response to Original message
11. I'd put the email address on ignore and turn it into my ISP for abuse.
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:42 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. I made my mom very angry that way. n/t
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Beelzebud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-06-06 08:43 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. ROFL
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