Tuesday, March 25, 2003
My father wrote this in response to an anti-French e-mail he received:
To all the hyper-nationalists on this list,
France is a country I know well and love, whose beautiful language I read, and whose political system I admire. While I would have preferred his opponent (Lionel Jospin) in the 2002 election, President Jacques Chirac was - unlike the incoherent moron in the White House - actually elected by the people he represents. While the United States has used its veto in the Security Council dozens of times in the past fifty years, normally to support the outrageous behavior of the Israeli Government, France has seldom opposed its western allies until this year. President Chirac's threatened use of the veto against an American war against Iraq reflects the near-unanimity of his people, a concept that is called democracy on the increasingly rare occasions when it happens in this country.
You are, of course, welcome to your vulgar prejudices. Should any of you possess bottles of hated French wine, you are welcome to send them to me, where - after la belle France is toasted - they will be consumed with reverence. If not, may you choke on your freedom fries.
Richard Oliver Collin
Palmetto Professor of Politics
Coastal Carolina University
Did I mention my dad kicks ass?
To all the hyper-nationalists on this list,
France is a country I know well and love, whose beautiful language I read, and whose political system I admire. While I would have preferred his opponent (Lionel Jospin) in the 2002 election, President Jacques Chirac was - unlike the incoherent moron in the White House - actually elected by the people he represents. While the United States has used its veto in the Security Council dozens of times in the past fifty years, normally to support the outrageous behavior of the Israeli Government, France has seldom opposed its western allies until this year. President Chirac's threatened use of the veto against an American war against Iraq reflects the near-unanimity of his people, a concept that is called democracy on the increasingly rare occasions when it happens in this country.
You are, of course, welcome to your vulgar prejudices. Should any of you possess bottles of hated French wine, you are welcome to send them to me, where - after la belle France is toasted - they will be consumed with reverence. If not, may you choke on your freedom fries.
Richard Oliver Collin
Palmetto Professor of Politics
Coastal Carolina University
Did I mention my dad kicks ass?
