January 24, 2006

OPEN LETTER TO GEORGIA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE



I have read that your organization is planning to visit
Aruba. It is inconceivable that such an action would be considered at this time, and I am asking that you will reconsider this ill-judged idea.

Your own governor has supported the tourist boycott of Aruba as the only tool we Americans have to seek justice in the Natalee Holloway case. I am aware that the boycott is not legally binding, but moral leadership is an issue to which we should not be indifferent.

And on a moral basis, your proposed visit is appalling. The Holloway Twitty family has faced lies, evasions, duplicity and insult in their efforts to find out what happened to their daughter. They continue to pay huge sums to finance a search that is rightfully the obligation of Aruba. Meanwhile, the Arubans scoff at the campaign to hold them accountable, and the main suspects remain free.

Aruba has spit in the face of the American people. And you seem to be indifferent. I hope that your governor publicly condemns your action.


There is an old joke:

Q. Which is worse, ignorance or apathy?

A. I don't know and I don't care.



May I venture to say that if your visit is carried through, you will be displaying both?

Support for your governor and for the Holloway Twitty family would seem to be an absolute minimum that could be expected from your group. You have failed.


-Richard R.
Vermont, USA


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This "I don't know and I don't care" banner on that little white house makes the American people trying to associate Bush with Aruba on whats going on. The evedropping on demestic American citizens and the destruction of forensic evidences on Natalee case sounds familiar and similar. All the two instances are the utmost corruptions of world governments at their most upchelon levels. In other words, the common poor people cannot fight them, and these higher powerful rich classes are out of the reach of the American public. These elites are suppressvive under the pretense of the laws, and they are the very people who break the laws, and have made themselves far above the law. These corrupt government officials are misstepping on the American people, crossing the morale line, and overly zealous in silencing their critics. By declaring the governments don't need a court warrant to evedrop or releasing the rapists/muderers under the prejudice and secret code of the Dutch laws, you are destroying our founding fathers' Bill of Rights and The Constitution. The American people are mad and outrages. Their birth rights of justice are violated. The America people demand the boycott, boycott the white house, Boycott Aruba. Aruba is a cancer of corruption and injustice which is spreading rapidly to the American soil. The Arubans just made the Americans look so bad. It is so ridiculous, Boycott Aruba.

Anonymous said...

How sad Richard....They were going in January, so I hope for them they've already been and enjoyed the lovely sunshine and hospitality on Aruba.

By the way, isn't it "Aruba has SPAT in the face..."? Even I know that and English is not my first language!

Anonymous said...

What the Geogia C & C is planning to celerbarte their membership drive success in Aruba is obviously going to draw the great suspicions from the IRS. The bad names of Aruba is now known to be associated with offshore business tax evasions, timeshares writeoffs scandals and money launderings. The recent AP news about the IRS rejects the tax refunds due the suspicious taxpayers. Many of these suspicious taxpayers are somewhat related to the Aruba scandals so popularized by the Internet bloggers. The IRS just smells the rats are there on that dingy island. So when the Georgia C&C gets messed around with Aruba's bad people and their business, they are doing harms to their members business in the whole state of Georgia. The IRS are all of a sudden getting very interested in looking into the dealings of the Georgia C&C, just why so many of their people are filing for the business car donations for federal tax deductions. The IRS are really smelling rats, they are investigating.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mrskrass:

Thank you for your observation on my grammar. I think that you may well be correct, at least according to the rules books, to note that the proper sentence would have been "Aruba has spat in the face of the American people," given that the present perfect tense was used.

However, "spat" as a derivative of spit sounds dreadfully archaic. It is used mostly as a noun signifying a dispute, or so I believe.

So we may be dealing with one of those situations where usage and the rules are in conflict. In this case, clearly, the "proper" usage would sound contrived.

Incidentally, and this has nothing to do with this sentence or this topic, for many years of my life I taught English overseas. One of the books I used from Oxford University Press said that many schools are phasing out the distinction between "who" and "whom," a trend that I deplore.

So I will defy the brickbats and adhere to the principle that use determines propriety, like a writer should. (I trust you are not of an age to recall the infamous Marlboro cigarette ads, which in their day infuriated a number of English teachers.)

But I appreciate your attention and assistance on this matter.

Anonymous said...

Apathy is the correct English word to describe Georgia Chamber of Commerce, the ALE, the Bachus and the Bush. They don't care about the little powerless people who die needlessly, whether it happens on a wrong war or on a wrong island. This is what galvanizing the American people to poke into the hypocricies of the Aruban government and of our President Bush. GCofC is insignificant as far as compared to the ongoing strong grassroot boycott against Aruba. People for the time being just don't want to associate with Aruba. Aruba is too hot and bad. They don't want their neighbors know they are going to Aruba. It is just not the right feeling. So people change their minds, they go to Thailand instead. People are sick and tired of Aruba. Since the disappearnce of Natalee, they gag ordered every hotel workers, the waiters were not friendly any more. They hated the Americans. They just wanted their dollars. The rumors might be true, they spat the food when they served some American tourists at C&C.

Anonymous said...

I'd probably spit in the food myself if I were an Aruban suspicious that I was feeding one of you pin-headed obnoxious americans who feel that they can inflict their will on the entire world. I might even flick in a booger as a response to your widespread hate of everything that doesn't fit in your smelly apple pie and ice cream world of Uncle Sam getting his own way. While I agree that the three youths in question certainly seem to smell the culprits, some of you donkeys forget that under your law they'd have spent their summer on the beach instead of jail.. Before I started hate an entire nation, take the time to reflect on your own police officers pounding the living bejuses out of 'black suspects' or the fact that the New Orleans police department has borne the stigma of the worlds most corrupt police force. Concentrate on the goal of conclusion for the poor girl's family without assuming you can inflict terror on an entire nation just because you are so much bigger. Stupid is as stupid does. Your hatred and bigotry, along with your evil wishes may one day come home to roost.

Anonymous said...

Send them down, They are our VIP's. Finally some Americans with common sense ;)