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From: Richard_Weintrag~abylon.montreal.qc.ca (Richard Weintrager)
Date: 21 Feb 1998 00:04:09 GMT
Subject: BAD? WORDS!

BAD? WORDS!

I've had numerous complaints about my using the words:

>shit
>shite
>fucked-up

on the list in the last few days and if that offends people then
I'll cease and desist.

Honestly!

Personally, though, I feel there are no such things as bad-words only
bad-uses of them and offensive- & demeaning-contexts in which they are placed
& focused-on onto specific other individuals. The more we think of a word as
a BAD-WORD the more it IS a BAD-WORD. We've got to clean-up a whole lot of
things in this world, one of the most important being the ignorant aggresion
and belittling of others. I have seen some pretty demeaning and rude
messages posted on this list. THAT is what we should be concerned with.

If the (extremely) occasional SHIT or SHITE or FUCKED-UP appears in a context
that is specifically demeaning or condescending then THAT should BE AN ISSUE
TO DEAL WITH! As I'm speaking here (among other things) about RESPECT I will
forthwith treat "swears" the same way I was taught as a boy to treat the word
GOD in my Jewish-school that taught me so many good and important lessons
along with the bad as G - D so I'll substitue the word SHIT as SH - T and the
word SHITE as SH - TE and the phrase FUCKED-UP as FD - UP.

Is THAT satisfactory?

Get off your pedestals (and by the way, those pedestals don't really exist,
they are NOT REAL, they are ALL IN YOUR MINDS) and get-on and into the pot.
Most of you are blues- and/or folk-players and this is primarily an
instrument AVAILABLE TO ALL and made for the people as has so regularly been
said here and elsewhere and to be frankly honest I'm a little shocked at just
how GENTRIFIED the whole form and the whole lot of you has become since this
music we play and this instrument we play-on first came-into BEING.

This music we play is ABOUT REAL-LIFE not some oppressive little Victorian
parlour-dabble; so get with the program & SPEAK THE SAME WAY YOU PLAY. Be
honest about yourself as well as your music. Some of what is posted here
certainly has that ever-present odour of the old barnyard so why not call
shit SHIT? It doesn't mean simply faeces, you know. Come on. We're all a
little more sophisticated than that to being making THAT
generalisation/specification mistake with such a versatile word!

But, as I said, if some tender ears & tender minds get all MESSED-UP over the
"vulgar tongue" then those ears & minds need a whole lot of maturing to go
through; nonetheless, I will RESPECT the needs of others and refrain from any
salient and aspirating use of cuss-words in-general in the future.

Hope THAT suffices to express my regret at having hurt anybody's sensitive
demeanour and to let you all know that you can continue to remain in a list
free of offensive WORDS... .

but I must warn you, however:

there are clearly those on this list that WILL CONTINUE to belittle and
demean and make fun-of others in the way that has been so apparantly
occasionally been accepted by the lot of you; and THAT, in my opinion, is
entirely UNACCEPTABLE!

Don't just take my APOLOGY at having offended certain individuals SERIOUSLY,
take ALL I HAVE SAID here in this one post QUITE SERIOUSLY, please?!. Let's
not all be too selectively-ignorant now, shall we?

Richard.


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