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Archiver > Scotch-Irish > 1997-12 > 0881098826


From: Iain Kerr <>
Subject: Closed minds reinforce decay
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 1997 16:40:26 -0500


I have been a subscriber to this list for two plus months. At first
I believed it to be focused on the genealogy of those families who
emigrated to the USA by way of Ireland (with some years interregnum in
Ireland). I believe that many on the list were interested in making links
to their Scottish roots,

Instead I have found an closed, insular group who are happy to offend
those who wish to help and remain determined to promote religious and
politically offensive attitudes. In a reply to the list organiser, who
chose to challenge my email support of another subscriber who objected to
the term "Scotch", which genuinely offends modern Scots, I said:

I wish to respond publicly to my repeated (and moderately diplomatic)
private and public protests about the use of the term "Scotch-Irish" and
support to others who have objected to the term which no matter how it may
be loved by groups in the USA, is offensive to many modern Scots.

I am afraid that you continue to maintain a provincial and closeted
attitude to the use of "Scotch" as an obsolete term for the people of
Scotland. So long as you wish to manage a list whose self-centred and very
trivial interests, far removed on genealogy, which seem to be focused on
very localised interests such as:

a. the dietary habits of rural communities targeted on the available
(tree borne and non aggressive) mammals;

b. religious affililiations which would be considered bigoted and
offensive in an era where we in the UK are attempting to create a peace
between "Orange" and "Green" tribal communities in Ulster;

c. an excessively defensive focus on the Scottish-Irish emigrants in
certain New England states of the USA;

d. a strange unwillingness to listen to the views expressed from the
Scottish "homeland" of so many (90%+) of those whom your list supports;

e. a bizarre inability to read English as it is written (where the
dictionary seems to have been abandoned); and

f. in some cases, a naive belief that the etymology of a surname, no
matter how badly it is misspelt, is better proof than genealogical proofs -
births , marriages and deaths.

I have enjoyed answering some of the more challenging questions in your
list, but, with regret, I must depart to other fora where I may learn more
than I teach!

My formal "unsubscribe" follows.

Yours aye, Iain

in Windsor, Berkshire
WWW site: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/iain_kerr
- originated at 02-Dec-1997, 21:37:51 GMT

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