TomG,
Please accept my apologies on behalf of all Americans if you were offended by the content or connotations of the "joke".
I have re-read the joke, and do not feel that the person relating it was in any sense actually advocating the killing of Canadians, or the shooting of anyone for that matter. Was it a good joke? Not for me. Was it tasteless? Surely to some. Was it so offensive as to warrant deletion from the forum? Hardly.
There are now more than 25,000 unique total visitors to Tractorbynet.com monthly, a figure up roughly double from a year ago.
You might reflect that of all of these users and visitors, you were the only one who seemed so deeply offended by the joke, at least enough to write a post about it.
From reading almost every post on the prior board and this web site for the past three years, one of the realizations I have come to is that owning a compact tractor is not just about the hardware and repairs. It is a lifestyle, bordering on a way of life. To be sure, it is a lifestyle different in kind and degree from the older farmer-type of tractor owner (like myself). I see from the profiles that we have some farmers, but a lot more engineers, brain surgeons, teachers, police captains, FBI agents, web designers, and about every other kind of occupation and social and political view imaginable.
The unity in this diversity of background, occupation, politics, religion, and economic levels, is the love of riding and using a tractor. Less than 10% of the total posts are off the direct topic of tractors. I believe these side doors of discussions help us to understand and respect each other more, not less.
Frankly, given the extreme plurality of the total universe of users of Tractorbynet.com, I find it remarkable (as many others have agreed) that the overall tone and operation of this board is carried on with such mutual respect and dignity. It is surely one of the best operated web boards on the Internet.
Nonetheless, I am sure there are limits. People would only need to substitute for the word 'Canadian' any member of another country, religion or racial group, to see how offensive such "jokes" can be.
I hope you are not serious in saying that you do not think you "belong here." I have found your posts of tremendous interest and relevance, and in fact we need persons of high intellect and reason like yourself, to speak up and make others aware when their remarks may be careless or thoughtless.
Americans are famous the world over for being naively chauvinistic (put their own country first no matter what). They can be quite insensitive to how rude their remarks may seem to others of different cultures and countries. However Americans, despite this, are among the fairest-minded people on the planet. And when they are made aware of the errors of their ways, are usually surprised that others have been offended, and make sincere efforts to avoid the offense in the future. I believe that is exactly what you have observed expressed here in this case. I doubt we will see any more "jokes" about shooting Canadians or anyone else!
I have had the pleasure of visiting Canada several times and traversing large parts of your fabulously lovely country. I find Canadians in general to be very well organized, thoughtful, and easily the most courteous and respectful drivers in the world. In fact, I have often said, in the midst of the insanity of American highway chaos, that we Americans need to go to Canada to learn how to drive.
Stick around TomG ... we need the Canadian perspective!!!
BobT.
A Indiana Boy
