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On opposing a club's policies
The Virtual Stamp Club, in a poll, is asking its members about the
course of action they would take if a club they belonged to was heading in the wrong direction. My answer was "Resign and tell them why." This actually happened to me and to Lt. Col. H. L. Halle, the president of the Germany Philatelic Society in 1959. A German study group we belonged to said in its new handbook (partly subsidized by the Fédération Internationale de Philatelie, and by extrapolation by the American Philatelic Society) called us war criminals. It did this by stating that West Germany's 1948 Building Series had been issued because American officers were illegally running the Bizonia (American and British Zones of Germany) postal service. The handbook cited the Geneva and Hague conventions, without specifying a part dealing with postal governance. Forty years later, I still do not know what they were talking about. Well, if we were being accused of being war criminals under one or both conventions, Harry and I did not want to belong. So we asked APS to protest against this. It did not. It would not. So we quit APS. At IBRA, a 1973 international stamp show in Munich, the Germans finally issued some sort of apology to Bernard Hennig and Dr. Werner Bohne, by then president of GPS. I realize that APS was not the culprit in this case, but it should have battled furiously to correct the injustice, because all Americans were being tarred by this accusation -- and, need I point it out -- by people who had participated in far greater war crimes just a few years earlier, far greater than issuing a bunch of ugly stamps. -- Stephen G. Esrati PO Box 20130 Shaker Heights, OH 44120 (216) 561-9393 |
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#2
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From: "Stephen G. Esrati"
Subject: On opposing a club's policies The Virtual Stamp Club, in a poll, is asking its members about the course of action they would take if a club they belonged to was heading in the wrong direction. My answer was "Resign and tell them why." This actually happened to me and to Lt. Col. H. L. Halle, the president of the Germany Philatelic Society in 1959. snip Stephen G. Esrati An interesting coincidence, Stephen. Just yesterday I read an editorial by you in an old issue of The German Postal Specialist; I don't recall which issue it was. You were appealing for a change in the editorial policy of the journal to allow articles of more general interest that people would actually read, as opposed to philatelic arcania that would bore the average non-specialist and many specialists to death. I think you must have succeeded, for I have found many interesting articles about WWII philately in issues dating from the early 1980s through 2000. I have certainly seen enough very dry philatelic journals. I wonder if membership in specialist societies would increase if they worked hard to relate stamp collecting to the "real world," as the Germany Philatelic Society seems to have done. Bob Ingraham |
#3
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On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 17:34:02 GMT, "Stephen G. Esrati"
wrote: They said: Americans had illegally taken over the Deutsche Post in contravention of the Geneva and Hague conventions. Is someone smoking too much crack over there or what? I guess I would be guilty before a German Volksgericht (people's court). I am very proud to be an American. Me too. Tracy Barber |
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On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 08:35:43 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote: Victor Manta wrote: "Stephen G. Esrati" wrote in message ... The Virtual Stamp Club, in a poll, is asking its members about the course of action they would take if a club they belonged to was heading in the wrong direction. My answer was "Resign and tell them why." This actually happened to me and to Lt. Col. H. L. Halle, the president of the Germany Philatelic Society in 1959. A German study group we belonged to said in its new handbook (partly subsidized by the Fédération Internationale de Philatelie, and by extrapolation by the American Philatelic Society) called us war criminals. snip -- Stephen G. Esrati Why have they called you a war criminal? Victor Manta "Stephen G. Esrati" wrote in message ... They said: Americans had illegally taken over the Deutsche Post in contravention of the Geneva and Hague conventions. snip And what had you personally to do with this alleged crime? Or was it a felony of having a dissenting opinion? Victor, you must stop asking yourself questions... It doesn't look good... :^P Tracy Barber |
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A little off-topic bit I left the NRA for a similar reason. I am (was) a
competition shooter and have many medals and trophies. Because the NRA is the sponsor of many tournaments, I had to belong to the organization. I constantly read NRA ads stating something like "2 million American shooters demand the right of all to bear arms," etc. Well, I for one do believe that a sane honest citizen has the right to own a rifle, but had no problem with the government checking a gun buyer for felonies, insanity, etc. I felt that the organization was misrepresenting my attitude on a regular basis and therefore left it. |
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"Herb F." wrote:
A little off-topic bit I left the NRA for a similar reason. I am (was) a competition shooter and have many medals and trophies. Because the NRA is the sponsor of many tournaments, I had to belong to the organization. I constantly read NRA ads stating something like "2 million American shooters demand the right of all to bear arms," etc. Well, I for one do believe that a sane honest citizen has the right to own a rifle, but had no problem with the government checking a gun buyer for felonies, insanity, etc. I felt that the organization was misrepresenting my attitude on a regular basis and therefore left it. I have a similar history. Many, many years ago, as a teenager, I belonged to the Junior Division of the NRA so I could participate in competitive matches and qualify for medals. (I made it to some bar of Sharpshooter, but I forget which. Fourth or fifth maybe.) But when I came to understand the political agenda that the NRA claimed was on behalf of me, I let my membership lapse. Years later, as an adult, I joined again, thinking it was better to have some counterveiling opinions within the organization. I quickly realized that was a really useless course of action, so I let my membership lapse again. --- Steve "Shoot targets, not people." |
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"Herb F." wrote in message
... snip I constantly read NRA ads stating something like "2 million American shooters demand the right of all to bear arms," etc. Well, I for one do believe that a sane honest citizen has the right to own a rifle, but had no problem with the government checking a gun buyer for felonies, insanity, etc. snip How about government checking (at best permanently) everyone for felonies, insanity, and especially for etc.? Because who known, maybe some are thinking about buying guns, knives, ropes, planes, for unknown purposes... Victor Manta |
#8
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Some interesting comments to my post.
The bottom line (and the story really has nothing to do about guns although some people with a hidden agenda will try to make it into an anti or pro-gun debate) is that no organization has the right to publicly state that all of it's members believe in anything unless they take a vote. If the NRA says that 2 million of it's members believe that everyone has the right to bear arms (or wear silly hats or whatever), then they need to poll those members. Nobody ever asked me my opinion. They assumed it. I did not much care for having someone say to me, "NRA? Oh you are one of those crazy *******s that thinks that a convicted wife-beater fresh out of prison and on meds to control his bi-polar problems needs to have an AK47." Why should I look like an idiot because a PR man at NRA HQs feels it is his responsibility to see that everyone in the world can pack a semiautomatic weapon? Now I repeat, I am a shooter. I have five pistols and 3 rifles. This is not about the weapons. It is about a national organization making comments in your name. What are your options? Very few. Leaving that group is about the only one that is of any significance. |
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#10
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"Herb F." wrote in message
... Some interesting comments to my post. The bottom line (and the story really has nothing to do about guns although some people with a hidden agenda will try to make it into an anti or pro-gun debate) is that no organization has the right to publicly state that all of it's members believe in anything unless they take a vote. Even if a vote is taken, this doesn't mean that all have agreed on something. Just some thousands more votes in a country of millions of voters can make a big difference, like recent history has shown. If the NRA says that 2 million of it's members believe that everyone has the right to bear arms (or wear silly hats or whatever), then they need to poll those members. Nobody ever asked me my opinion. They assumed it. Maybe NRA has in its statutes that its members believe that everyone has the right to bear arms. No idea if it is true, but have you by chance checked its statutes? If it is true, then they can assume it indeed. snip Victor Manta |
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