> I certainly would not want to be held responsible for my grandparents' >activities, especially as I never knew them.
>A saddened Patricia in Wales I'm with you, Patricia! One can deeply regret what was done in the past, without having to be held responsible for what ancestors have done. I for one left the Catholic faith I was raised into because I could not tolerate to belong to a religion that behaved in such a disgusting way towards people in the past, meaning the Crusades, burning witches, torturing poor wretches to make them change their faith the the "true" one, etc. However, I don't hold the present Church "responsible" for those events, I just expect them to have learnt from it and be more tolerant now, and I'm not satisfied with their modern attitude. Tolerance and having learnt from the past doesn't seem to occur in many of the fanatically religious people one encounters everywhere, and I don't mean just Catholics!! I can read "Little women" and think OK, I don't like their ideas about this or that, but I can accept that it was current at the time. I would not accept that a modern writer could have the same prejudices. My really big gripe with this subject is that everyone complains about what was done in the past and says "what are you going to do about it?", but most of those same people are quite intolerant about other things. One example I read about is in the biography of Roberta Sykes (Snake circle, in 3 volumes), a fantastic read about a modern Aboriginal rights fighter and the life she lead. I tell you I was weeping in the plane going to England while reading the end of her first book, when she tells about the way she was raped as a young woman, and treated by the local police and others. She tells in her third book of how she was herself rejected by the Aboriginal community where she lived, around Sydney, because she found, after years of devoting herself to the Aboriginal cause, that her father may have been a black American soldier rather than an Aborigine, as her mother(who was white) had let her believe all her life without actually telling her who he really was. Suddenly, they didn't want to have anything to do with her any more, as if all her efforts on their behalf was for nothing, and I don't think it's even certain that she has no Aboriginal blood. Well, that kind of thing really gets my goat up!! Coming down from my soapbox now! Yours in lace, (thank heavens it's a fairly non-prejudiced area!!), Helene, the croaking froggy from Melbourne Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies. http://au.movies.yahoo.com To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
