A modest proposal

People like to forward all kinds of things to me in their e-mails. Sometimes it's good stuff like a fun link, or a silly joke, or a wise quote.

More often than not, I receive stuff that truly annoys and offends me. I'm cutting and pasting one such e-mail that I received today at the bottom of this post.

The problem I have with the writing below, is that many of the people who forward this kind of thing don't seem to understand that this a form of satirical humor and that it is not meant to be taken literally.

I suppose if Jonathan Swift were alive, his essay, "A Modest Proposal" would also be forwarded in mass e-mailings. I wonder how many people would be willing to adopt the belief that the mass murder and consumption of children in poverty is a feasible solution to reconciling the issues of hunger and poverty?

As I've already stated, I understand the humor in the piece below.

The problem I have with this kind of e-mail forward is two fold. First, underneath the humorous words/ideas I sense a genuine anger, and dare I say, a bias, that reeks of both prejudice and racism. What frightens me however, is that people blindly foward this stuff to everyone they know, saying things like: "This is the best plan I've ever heard!!! We ought to send this to both the Republicans and Democrats."

Doesn't this scare any of you?

Oh just read the essay for Pete's sake and decide for yourself!

You gotta love Robin Williams...... Even if he's nuts! Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan.

What we need now is for our UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message. Robin William's plan...(Hard to argue with this logic!)

"I see a lot of people yelling for peace but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan."

1) "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present. You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those 'good ole boys', we will never "interfere" again.

2) We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave. We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of whom or where they are. They're illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) All future visitors will be tho-roughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) No foreign "students" over age 21. The older ones are the bombers. If they don't attend classes, they get a "D" and it's back home baby.

6) The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy wise. This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy but will require a temporary drilling of oil in the Alaskan wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go some place else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not "interfere." They can pray to Allah or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement or whatever they need. Besides most of what we give them are stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island some place. We don't need the spies and fair weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us "Ugly Americans" any longer. The Language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE...Now, isn't that a winner of a plan? "The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and she's yelling, 'you want a piece of me?'

If you agree with the above forward it to friends...If not, and I would be amazed, DELETE it!!