The Common Good
March-April 2001

If the Shoe Fits

by Stacia M. Brown, Geoff Coelho | March-April 2001

I FOUND YOUR article on "Virtual Hate" (by Stacia Brown, September-October
2000).

Print
Post a Comment | Write to the Editor
I FOUND YOUR article on "Virtual Hate" (by Stacia Brown, September-October 2000). Would you care to comment on how my Web site came to be listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as an "Anti-Government Hate Site," along with Women Against Gun Control and a bunch of other RKBA ["Right to Keep and Bear Arms"]-oriented Web sites, including a link to the NRA Museum?

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has withdrawn the Web page under pressure, but you can find some history and a copy of the SWC page at my Web site, "Geoff's Firearms and Freedoms Page." You'll be hard pressed, I'm sure, to understand how some of those sites came to earn the Wiesenthal swastika-of-shame.

Geoff Coelho
New City, New York

Stacia Brown replies:
Coelho's Web site isn't one that I had researched, but my brief foray into it tells me that it's quite deserving of its place on the Wiesenthal Center's list. The heading under the Web site name is: "POKING AN ITCHY TRIGGER FINGER INTO THE EYES OF EFFETE LIBERAL SNOBS SINCE APRIL, 1997 And the Home of Freedom on Film, the Internet's Premier Amature [sic] Picture Post for Gun Owners." There is certainly room on the Internet for gun owner advocates, for conservatives, for people who don't like Hillary Clinton, etc. But where I start to get nervous is when we bring the gun rhetoric and the hate rhetoric together. The title itself indicates a violent stance-even if meant in partial jest. You don't have to put a swastika on your Web site to qualify as a site that promotes a violently intolerant stance.

Post a Comment | Write to the Editor
Sojourners relies on the support of readers like you to sustain our message and ministry.

Like what you're reading? Get Sojourners E-Mail updates!

Sojourners Comment Community Covenant

I will express myself with civility, courtesy, and respect for every member of the Sojourners online community, especially toward those with whom I disagree, even if I feel disrespected by them. (Romans 12:17-21)

I will express my disagreements with other community members' ideas without insulting, mocking, or slandering them personally. (Matthew 5:22)

I will not exaggerate others' beliefs nor make unfounded prejudicial assumptions based on labels, categories, or stereotypes. I will always extend the benefit of the doubt. (Ephesians 4:29)

I will hold others accountable by clicking "report" on comments that violate these principles, based not on what ideas are expressed but on how they're expressed. (2 Thessalonians 3:13-15)

I understand that comments reported as abusive are reviewed by Sojourners staff and are subject to removal. Repeat offenders will be blocked from making further comments. (Proverbs 18:7)