a friend of mine, Virtu, sent the following Email
see.. i told u I am innocent
:*)
I'm innocent I'm innocent!!
*jumping up and down*
*kissing my tattoo of I "heart" Semitic people*
I love you, I love myself, give me my Visa money back
Greetings!
I have been reading your blog, as well as Salam's and Riverbend's, for quite a while now, but I haven't bothered mailing you before. Firstly because I really don't feel I could say anything meaningful about the situation in Iraq that you don't already know on a very personal level, and secondly because I don't like mailing hotmail addresses. Microsoft and all that...
But now I feel like I must say this. You say they claim they can't accept your presentation because you use the word "Zionist" in your blog? First of all, I thought the Americans considered the freedom of speech to be a sacred right no one should be able to take away (unless, of course, you're using it for something as foul as criticising the current government). Second, they seem to be idiots. A quick googling for "zionist" on your site reveals two cases of the offending word. The first time was from March, where you are talking about hate, and categorising your so-called enemies. Let me quote:
> ATTACK THE OTHER. Don’t you ever listen to what he might say. Usually > there are certain predefined titles to categorize your enemy: Zionist, baathist, communist, imperialist, terrorist, Islamist... these are small soundproof boxes that you must put your enemy inside, and you’ll never hear his poisoning ideologies… Can and dump
Quite a valid use for the word, considering the context. And the second one, which is probably what they noticed and were so afraid of. The end of August. This passage:
> Drank some tea today. Grrrrrrrr! I just so hate those callous, stupid, militaristic, Zionist influenced, oil coveting, duplicitous, ignorant, conniving, hegemonic, crusading, evil, incompetent, controlling, unfeeling, manipulative, fatuous, scheming, simplistic, self-interested, ideologically zealous, insular, empire seeking, malevolent, all powerful, impotent American bastards!
Which happened to be from the angry parody some annoyed and frustrated person (I'm even willing to go as far as to assume it was an American) mailed you, and which you put up as an example of what kind of hate mail you receive. And they really thought it was you writing that? Sarcasm is obviously a dangerous tool.I hope that you will be able to sort things out and explain it to them, but don't forget that sadly, you'd probably have a lot of trouble getting into the country, anyway. I am Finnish myself, and even though I have several American friends, I have told them I will not travel to USA until they utterly demolish the USA PATRIOT Act.I don't know if this has made any difference or even much sense, but like I said before, I felt like saying it.
Goodbye for now, and stay alive, and keep writing! I will keep reading.
