Chain mail from some flounder?

[nolawitch58]

Before I launch into my diatribe, let me say that I'm loving the current seasonal LJ banner. The witch flying across the full moon gives me such warm fuzzies.

A well-meaning woman who used to be in my writers' group sends me all kinds of the usual nutsoid chain mail. For a long time, all I did was look at the FWD or FW in the subject line and delete it. Then one day I got the glurgiest uber patriotic crap that follows:

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if I don't.

It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a problem in having "In God We Trust" on our money and having "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I believe it's time we stand up for what we believe!

If you agree, pass this on, if not delete.

Believe me, that doesn't do it justice. There were some awful animated gifs and star spangled cliches and of course, the font had to be really big so that the really small minds could understand it. Well, if you know me, you know that torqued my gears something fierce. I was getting sick of clearing that crap out of the inbox all the time, so I thought "what the hell" and clicked Reply All. What follows is my reply to every other soul who got that email from her.

Believe in your god if you will, but I trust in the Constitution more. The Constitution which separates church and state will protect us better collectively than any religion. There is nothing in American law which condemns me to death, but there is a sentence in the Bible that seemingly condones killing me. Charming...not!

The secular will protect the sacred better than the sacred would ever protect the secular. What a damned shame so many think their all-powerful deity has to be foisted upon the uninterested. Doesn't say much for either your deity or your religion.

Susan R. Kagan
Wiccan American

Of course, I got a reply to that: "Thank you. I was beginning to think I was the only one." That was from the woman's daughter. She might be kinda ditzy personally, but she raised at least one kid without cranial-rectal inversion.

Since then, I continue to get this sort of chain mail. Most of it is the dreary, garden variety "if you don't forward this horseshit about some stupid fucking angels, you'll have bad luck; but if you do, you'll win the lottery." Occasionally, and I expect more often in the coming year, there will be idiotic political commentaries that make me want to slap people. I will continue to click Reply All and vent until that crap dries up and blows away from my inbox forever.

Comments

[ex-whitepho.livejournal.com]

*stands and applauds like a madly thrilled applauding thing*

[gyrbyl.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

Invisibility fosters intolerance because nobody knows their friend/neighbor/friendly checkout person at the grocery store is a Wiccan/a lesbian/a Martian, and it's easier to dehumanize "those people" when you don't know any of them.

Good for you for making your voice heard!

[real-skeptic.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'd probably add something about the fact that her "One nation under god", according to her own data, doesn't include 14% - so are they not considered part of the nation?

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Not according to G.H.W.Bush.

To nolawitch

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

I once got Puritan glurge in my in-box at work. I kid you not. Some wingnut sent me a pile of spam with excerpts from some Puritan nutcase (dated 1600's) about how the world is like a woman's breasts and evil and seductive etc. etc. It was so funny I printed it and passed it around the office. One guy said, "Wow! This guy is a future Branch Davidian!"

Have you ever gotten the glurge about supporting the troops? I got that yesterday. The one that has pictures of soldiers and contrasts our good life with all the sacrifices they make for us.

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

I never thought of hitting other than the delete button to be rid of annoying chain letters; I like the "reply to all" idea.

"under god" was added to the pledge of allegiance when I was in 6th grade. Our teacher allowed those who didn't think it was appropriate to not say the phrase. Sadly, she was unique. I still believe it is unconstitutional.

[voxwoman.livejournal.com]

This is why I have HTML and images off by default on Thunderbird. I would not have seen any of this, and after looking at the header tags of the HTML would have deleted it before reading it and getting my bile riled up.

I have enough aggravation sorting through my dad's snail mail - I don't even open the ones that say "Thank you for supporting President Bush and his agenda" anymore. I do get a laugh at the envelopes with "AND THEN THEY OUTLAWED BABY JESUS" scrawled in mock magic marker over the front.

Either my spam folder is catching 90% of these, or my friends know better than to send me junk like that. I have one covenmate that likes to forward jokes and cat photos - I'm almost ready to ask him to cease and desist.

Somehow, I don't think that replying is going to stop her from sending you stuff. She's probably unaware that you are hitting "reply all". You may simply have to ask her to remove you from her "send random stuff" list. I'd be interested to know if it does work, and how long it takes.

My experiment with snail mail didn't really work, either. Sending responses with nasty notes, extra weight, and no money didn't stop the flood. However, not responding at all has (after 3 months) slowed the flood down a bit. I'm down to one bag a week instead of 2. Although, I'm going to miss the Brigadier General that keeps sending me dollar bills (makes you wonder how much of one's donation actually GETS to the veterans it's supposed to be helping). I got 8 bucks from him last week (that's 8 begging letters in one week).

[patrixa.livejournal.com]

wOW!!! I only get nickles from the veterans.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

But isn't the idea of a broom as an aircraft a horrible stereotype? :-P