[Magdalen] Right now: Paris.

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Roger,

re: "There has been some interchange between James O-C and Jim G about how
to respond to the events in Paris a few days ago."
I'm not sure why you say that.  I had no suggestion of how people ought to
respond to Paris, handguns or anything. I obviously have my opinions, but I
never said anything about my views.  I was observing that guthrie's
comments are incorrect, inappropriate, and out of line.

I noticed that Guthrie says that we are appalled (his term, so I go with
that) by Paris, and not appalled by gun deaths.  I put it to Guthrie that
(1) his use of "we" is undefined, so what is he talking about? and (2) if
he's talking about people on this list (what other possible object could he
mean, since nobody else reads the stuff here?) then he knows full well, or
certainly ought to know, that what he implies is untrue.  Folks here have
constantly expressed revulsion, outrage, frustration and horror at handgun
violence.

I know Guthrie's not well, but he needs to exercise some judgment.


James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 6:35 PM, Roger Stokes <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> wrote:

> On 16/11/2015 22:58, Jim Guthrie wrote:
>
>> Why would you think that I'm appalled by Paris means I think everyone
>> else are moral idiots?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jim
>>
>> -----Original Message----- From: Molly Wolf
>> Sent: Monday, November 16, 2015 12:07 PM
>> To: magdalen at herberthouse.org
>> Subject: Re: [Magdalen] Right now: Paris.
>>
>> So your audience -- that is, the Magdalen pub -- contains moral idiots
>> inferior to you?  How flattering.
>>
>> A good homiletic rule is "preach to the people in the pew, not out the
>> back door."
>>
>> Gnarliness does not equal superior wisdom.
>>
>
> I think what we may have here is a misunderstanding that can occur in a
> medium such as this.  There has been some interchange between James O-C and
> Jim G about how to respond to the events in Paris a few days ago.  I
> believe both gentlemen have been deeply shocked by what happened that
> night.  Where they appear to differ is in how general they feel this
> revulsion to be, and what one should assume in that regard.  Unfortunately
> this difference of opinion and consequent misunderstanding has not always
> been expressed in the most charitable terms.
>
> On a slightly different tack those events came a little closer to home
> today.  I was in a local school where I chair the Governing Body for a
> meeting this morning.  While there I heard that a member of staff had been
> in Paris with his family to celebrate his mother's 50th birthday.  While
> the hotel they were in was not attacked there was an alarm and lock-down so
> they had to stay in their room for several hours.
>
> During this time they heard various bangs which they assumed to be shots
> until eventually the police, bearing machine-guns, entered the room where
> they were.  I am not sure of the family's ethnicity but I believe the skin
> hue could be seen as Asian or Middle Eastern.  That was not a good position
> for them to have been in on what was meant to be a celebratory weekend.;
>
> Roger
>