[Qcwa] Contest boycotts?

[Christopher Fite]

It is a shame that a few, vocal, mean-spirited individuals can ruin anything.  
The individuals in a country don't make the policies and actions of the 
country.

There are many things that I do and do not support, and I have little control 
over much of it.

If he represented much of a movement, there would be silence, not antagonism.

Chris, AC5R

On Sunday 30 March 2003 04:10 pm, Robert Harvey wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> 	For the first time ever today I heard a Ukranian station in the
> contest refusing to work U.S. or U.K. amateurs because of the war in Iraq.
> He stated if you supported his view that the U.S. was conducting an illegal
> and evil war, then to call and QSO, otherwise, not to bother.  Needless to
> say, he made many EU contacts, but there was a pretty heavy silence from
> A/K/N/W and G hams.
>
> 	To say I was enraged is somewhat of an understatement.  This amateur
> owes his very freedom to take a stand at all to our victory in the Cold
> War. For him to take such a stand now is unimaginable to me.  I just had to
> ask myself just how vocal he was before 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet
> Union?  The Ukraine has a long history of purges, mass graves and
> atrocities that would make your blood curdle.  I can't remember any such in
> our history.
>
> 	I'm not sure what response is appropriate here.  The gulf (no pun
> intended) between the appeasement policies of Europe (so finely stated by
> men like Neville Chamberlain and the Vichy French) and the U.S. is widening
> daily. If it spills over to the airwaves, I don't think I can take a "this
> is Ham Radio, it's apolitical" point of view this time.  I don't know;
> voluntary bans on QSO's with DE/F or ON amateurs seems like a fine place to
> start, even if I, as an ON9, am affected.
>
> 	I know I'm probably going to get a broad range of responses; we had
> hams working like crazy during the recent North Korean Dxpeditions; I would
> rather have lunch with Hitler.  Still, this is over the top and really
> makes me angry.
>
> 	Any comments?
>
> 73, Bob K2PI
>
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-- 
The difference between theory and practice, in theory, is less than the 
difference between theory and practice, in practice.