So, I thought I should expand on my own intereference in a couple of threads. I love this place. It is where I go to learn and to interact with others who share my passion for World War II history. That we also have other areas for the opportunity to digress into other aspects of history or other geo-political, cultural, or just plain fun spots is great. I have been terribly saddened at recent threads that have turned into sniping between a Canadian member and some American members.

Neither country or its people are wholly right or wholly wrong in either the past or the present. No country can make that claim. I have travelled enough and interacted enough with people from other countries to know that there are well-educated and well-behaving people from every place, just as there are the ignorant and the rude.

I am extremely proud of the members of Canada's military - past and present, and because of my father's service and its effect on my life I particularly focus on World War II.

In my attempts to make peace, I have probably annoyed others. I know I annoyed at least one of the parties who has told me he won't be back - which is a loss of the knowledge he had to offer despite the attitude he brought with it. I shall endeavour to keep to my own little corner and just withdraw in the future. As the members are predominantly adults, they do not require a mother. I already have two early-20s stepchildren who live with me. I have MS (fortunately more or less in remission at this time) and going out of my way to find stress is not in my best interest.

So, my apologies to those who may think I should have left well enough alone; unfortunately, it has not been in my nature to not try to alleviate something which is obviously going to have a bad outcome. In this case, it was more than a member leaving the forum but negative words and attitudes that will remain and reverbrate in the threads long after the persons involved even think of them.

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Regards, Michelle

Oliver Goldsmith, "I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines."

Michelle there are absolutely no apologies needed here. If there is some picking on this forum because of your Nationality, please report these threads and I will stop the quarrel. You know I will not tolerate the eternal "my country is better than yours" thing, so if you were offended by a small minority , please do not think all of the Rogues are like that.

You know how I respect Canada and Canadians and have participated to many threads honoring Canadians (right now I'm thinking about the Vimy Ridge, the 514 Squadron thread etc...) . The RCAF contribution was also essential. There is absolutely no doubt about Canada's effort, whether in Normandy, Holland or elsewhere. The people there will always be grateful to Canada, so don't be influenced by negative lines and think about the people who sing "Oh Canada" every year in Europe. You should not even have to argue this and if some claim "they" were better (even if they weren't even born) ignore them. If they cannot appreciate you for your qualities and have to judge you because of your nationality they are not worth bothering.

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Thanks, Skipper. The problems developed between members and a Canadian other than me, who - more often than not - added an Anti-American zinger, which then began the war of words. If it had been just me someone sniped at, I could probably have ignored it or hopefully developed appropriate communication. This unfortunately, started a proliferation of negative Canadian and negative Amercian rhetoric on various threads during the time I was rarely on the Forum. In the future, I'll remember to report it to you and you can be the "Peace Keeper".

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Regards, Michelle

Oliver Goldsmith, "I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines."

I believe there is nothing wrong in a spot of friendly banter between the various nations on this forum,but when it gets to the point where people start being personel it is bang out of order, by all means have your opinion but respect others.As for the americans and the canadians winding each other up im welsh so i have the scots english and irish to put up with.michelle have to pick your brains and the other canadians, on the forum some time reference your airborne, and special forces ww2 and modern day.hope you continue to give your ms a kick in the butt and stay true to yourself on this forum.Jason

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WHEN YOU GO HOME, TELL THEM OF US AND SAY, FOR YOUR TOMORROW,WE GAVE OUR TODAY. Epitaph on the Kohima memorial .

Don't forget it was a RCAF Spitfire that wounded Rommel.

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Patriotism is where the love of your country comes first, nationalism is where the hate of other countries comes first.-Charles De Gaulle.

Ok, for a moment I thought Macrusk was personnally involved, I actually missed this quarrel between those the gentlemen. Could someone tell me where to find it or provide a link, I'll go there a sa peacekeeper, hopefully this will suffice? As Jason said, there is nothing wrong about a few jokes, we do that all the time, including myself, but when people start saying things without thinking, they may regret it later and it doesn't do any go to the forum.

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Skipper. This had happened in a few threads. Not just one. His uber-nationalism was very apparent. You may want to talk to Jeff about it as he is aware of it.This is one of the threads. It happens to be my own and had totally diverged from the original subject.
50 destroyers for bases deal

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I'm the "Confederate with a pipe"!! LOL

Michelle,

While still a newbie, I'd like to offer my 2 cents.

Don't ever hold back. What is so appealing to me about these forums is the free exchange of ideas. Call it a vicarious return to my days in college if you like. Some people just take it a little too personally. I've seen your posts, and wouldn't want to miss them.

David

Ok, I got the full picture now. The reason why I wasn't aware of this is because Jeff is already doing a fine job moderating this thread, so I did'nt read it at first.

Apparently from what I see NOBODY is picking on Canada , but they are dealing with ONE Canadian nationalist. Well, the least I can say is that he dropped oil on the (U.S.) fire. Jeff is holding this under control and as Michelle suggested, the best way would be to return back to the topic. If things do not improve the threat could be closed, which would be another way to close the discussion. But I'm sure this would leave a bitter taste that could be avoided by improving this discussion. I'm aware you didn't start this. If the Canadian gentleman reads this post (I hope so), I rely on the fact that he can be a reasonable person too ( I actually had some nice discussions with him which were purely WWII related).
Again, do not hesitate to report posts like the ones mentionned, we can stop these discussions before they go too far.

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No Prob there Skipper .

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

I'm the "Confederate with a pipe"!! LOL

Mchelle,
Don't let them get to you. Your efforts (and Canada's) are well appreciated by everyone here.

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Regards,

Gordon
History Vault Bookshop
FortressScotland-http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y20/Historian/

Well actually we sorted things out. Noone is getting at Michelle in particular and Canada in general. Michelle is affected by the fact that her country is evoked in a negative way in a thread that is getting off topic and leads to nowhere.

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I wanted to carry any other discussion on the behaviour away from the thread itself. I also have no problem with friendly international banter, particularly by parties who generally show each other respect. I know exactly why the negative remarks were being made in rebuttal, and while I did not like it, I also understand it. My primary concern was the degenerating nature of the war of words inspired by totally unnecessary derogatory remarks about the US. Aside from posting on the forum and a couple of other PMs to Rogues, I also PM'd the other gentleman. Once to let him know that although I appreciated his knowledge about Canada's roles and other military knowledge that he has shown, I did not care for the anti-US bashing and asked that he refrain from it. His response was to say he had already removed us from his favourites list and didn't plan on returning as he had not felt welcome....I actually PMd him again to state that I regretted his choice as I felt he had a lot of knowledge to offer, it was the extra unnecessary remarks I protested.

When its a troll I don't bother as they are going to go down in flames anyhow. What bothers me is when it is someone with a lot of knowledge who delivers it in that manner. As the individual also represents a WWII museum in Canada, I hope that he does not treat American visitors - guests in my country - in the manner in which he was behaving on various threads on the Forum. I hoped I could make a positive difference in what was happening and am disappointed that it did not work. Thanks for the time you took Skipper. This thread was more explanatory and my reaction the next morning.

When someone on the Forum tees me off, I usually wait until the next day to see whether the possible cost of overall impaired relations is worth making a rebuttal.

Thanks to those who responded so kindly. And its a wrap for me on this topic...........

I shall reappear on another thread later.

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Regards, Michelle

Oliver Goldsmith, "I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines."

Don't worry guys, i've calmed down even though the meds are still messing with my head Usually im laughing but, im really serious about the mads thing. If interested, ask me in a PM.

PS, not all Americans agree with Bill O'Reilly in boycotting Canada ;-D

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

See, even the southeners know there is something above the Masson-Dixon line, so what else do we need! I hope your health is improving Carl, it must be a pain to take all those pills. it's impressvie to see how you get time to read all these threads and be our number one poster. Time for me to go to another thread and bug you elsewhere.

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Thank you for the kind words Skipper-your a treasure to this site and for myself ;-)) My big problems with my health are centering around having to have two operations instead of only one. I need the first one done and heal up from it before I can do the second one. Kai would know better how to explain about the second one ;-)) The 2nd operation is one that im told that they only way to relieve it or to do away with the problem all-together-is to drill into my brain. Kinda sounds like an old black & white "B" Sci-Fi movie doesn't it? Several months ago, I was diagnosed with something called: "Essential Tremors." This means that I look like im shaking because of cold weather-even though it's not hot here.

I shake all the time and they are somewhat controlled by taking three medications but, the tremors continue-just not as bad as w/o meds. I was told that my tremors will only get much worse over time if I don't have an operation. Incidently, Jean, who is one of the Librarians at the library I come to all the time, she has a disorder similar to mine called; Familiar Tremors. I don't know what the difference between the two are but she is much worse off than I am since hers happened starting I think, about 15 or so years ago. I know that I must have had them going back as far as 1996. This was when I first got into Law Enforcement and was a Correctional Officer III.

It was pretty embarassing to have Inmates come up to you and ask things like: "Boss, why are you shaking?" To which i'd reply: "I'm not shaking and or that it's not cold enough out, to make me shake. Had I known at that time that I had a problem, i'd have gone to see a Doctor about it. For me, they were not noticable, and I never knew there was a problem until my roommate saw my hands shaking when I was trying to eat some Chinese food with a fork and was having difficulty in doing so. Again, I never even noticed anything was not normal and figured that if I was having troubles-that it could have been due to lack of sleep or something like that.

Well, what forced me into finally going and seeing a Neurological Doctor, was when my roommate and I were dining at a nice restaurant called: Montana Mikes, and I was trying to eat my dinner consisting of: Roast Beef tips on a bed of white rice, and that I got looked at by some people from another table-who I guess thought I was drunk-because I was having so much trouble using a fork. Well, as most people know-I don't drink spirits-except on very rare exceptions and maybe once every few years or so.

Anyway, I'd noticed people staring and I got a bit angry about it and was frustrated with myself because I had to use a spoon when trying to eat. At that period of time, I did drink alot of sweatened iced tea. I love the stuff. Well, I figured that maybe I was intaking way too much caffeine-so I decided to cut back on sweatened iced tea.

After that embarassing time at that restaurant, and several days later-after not drinking anything that had suger and caffenine, I still had the shakes and thought it was odd that i'd still be going through caffeine withdrawell. I made a Drs appt with my regular Dr, and they then hooked me up with an excellent Neurologist. This guy did some simple testing and told me I had Essential Tremors.

Well, my tremors have seemed to sort of speed up in that my entire body constantly trembles and I can feel it all the time. Also, if I try to hold a glass of water with my left hand-i'd better forget it-because the contents will be anywhere but in the glass. My right hand is not so bad. Im also having great difficulty in hand-writing any letters. I first noticed how hard it was to write-about a year or so ago.

There you have it my friend. Now if I can just get that problem resolved, maybe my handwriting will no longer be compared with; Heiroglyphics. ;-))

PS, now you know why I misspell a lot of words too. ;-))

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

You be careful and make sure your surgery team is all Republican, or else they may try to inject some Liberal genes in you (if they can find a brain, of course)!

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