GUAV - To assert that the 2nd Amendment - where "arms" as understood at the end of the 18th C. were radically different from modern weapons - deserves equal weight as freedom of speech - which is the same issue it was when the 1st Amendment was written - is about as rational as suggesting that the 3rd Amendment has any bearing in the 21st century.
While my origins are such that I could claim "whiteness" - 1/2 English, 1/4 German, 1/4 Swedish - for years I have pointed out the obvious - I'm still trying to find the part of my body that is actually WHITE. My skin is beige, at best, and not much lighter than some of my "black" friends' skin. My teeth are no longer white, the whites of my eyes are not really white...where is that "white" part of me?
Some years ago I was chatting online with a woman from Slovenia. When I told her about my lineage, she called me a "mongrel". She was 100% Slovenian.
So much for my "whiteness". So much for ALL of our collective "whiteness". Then there's this pertinent fact - a person born blind knows nothing of this notion. It's impossible to describe color just with words to someone who has never seen anything. So obviously "whiteness" is totally a matter of perception. As the light of day wanes, my skin color shifts darker, until it disappears in total darkness. So much for anything objective about this notion...
Maybe it would be OK for someone else on the plane to "get a bit nervous" with a black guy on the plane like Juan.....
One would have hoped that Juan would have been able to see through his own BS as a black man, who are subjected to comparable nonsense, whether "driving while black" or elsewhere. The mindlessness that underlies these kinds of comments is a sad commentary on the relative ignorance of Americans.
GUAV - To assert that the 2nd Amendment - where "arms" as understood at the end of the 18th C. were radically different from modern weapons - deserves equal weight as freedom of speech - which is the same issue it was when the 1st Amendment was written - is about as rational as suggesting that the 3rd Amendment has any bearing in the 21st century.
While my origins are such that I could claim "whiteness" - 1/2 English, 1/4 German, 1/4 Swedish - for years I have pointed out the obvious - I'm still trying to find the part of my body that is actually WHITE. My skin is beige, at best, and not much lighter than some of my "black" friends' skin. My teeth are no longer white, the whites of my eyes are not really white...where is that "white" part of me?
Some years ago I was chatting online with a woman from Slovenia. When I told her about my lineage, she called me a "mongrel". She was 100% Slovenian.
So much for my "whiteness". So much for ALL of our collective "whiteness". Then there's this pertinent fact - a person born blind knows nothing of this notion. It's impossible to describe color just with words to someone who has never seen anything. So obviously "whiteness" is totally a matter of perception. As the light of day wanes, my skin color shifts darker, until it disappears in total darkness. So much for anything objective about this notion...
Maybe it would be OK for someone else on the plane to "get a bit nervous" with a black guy on the plane like Juan.....
One would have hoped that Juan would have been able to see through his own BS as a black man, who are subjected to comparable nonsense, whether "driving while black" or elsewhere. The mindlessness that underlies these kinds of comments is a sad commentary on the relative ignorance of Americans.