From: "garigue" on Tues 21 Jun 2005 22:44


"John Smith" wrote in message
...
Yep, more attacks, no solutions offered... but then, that is quite
natural for here... now back to:

1) analyze the problem to death.
2) claim there is nothing wrong
3) claim even if there is something wrong, nothing will work to fix it.
4) pretend no one notices what is really going on
5) go back to the few old guys on the net and rant with them.
6) pretend that we will live forever
7) argue one new license a year is enough
8) don't ask the people who are NOT hams why they don't get a license
9) if they tell us why--deny that it is a valid reason
10) carry on as if it is still yesterday.
11) etc, etc, etc...

... yawn...

John

First of all John I see little humor in this discussion bringing into the
mix those poor souls with Alzheimer's syndrome ..... It is like the idiot
who posts here with references to colostomy bags ...... I sincerely hope
that either of you never have to go through that in your lives.

Wow. A LECTURE!

Tom, try to calm down and look at the big picture. Growing
dementia ("Alzheimer's") in older people and is a terrible
thing to observe up-close and personal. I'm quite familiar with
that, having watched my own mother go through that, little bit
by little bit every day, the last four years of her life in a
nursing home. I visited her every day and could see others in
the same hospital succumb slowly...and share the inner turmoil
of their family and friends watching their loved ones. The
same with those other patients having various physical damage
from injury or illness. Three hundred beds in that one
single-floor facility, seen every day.

Go ahead, make my day, try to lecture ME on "taking all that so
very, very seriously" about handicaps and illnesses...

I am still awaiting John for specifics on what you have done to foster an
appreciation in younger people for the service.

Not a requirement of amateur radio licensing, Tom.

General bitching about the way things are won't cut it ...that my friend is
too easy and is the tact of a pontificating twit.

...and you are as guilty as anything of doing the SAME
"pontificating" about Alzheimer's suffering.

It's no more, no less of a pontification than all the high and
mighty amateur extras in here praising the glory and majesty
and "necessity" of morse code testing or rank-status-privilege
"due them" in a HOBBY activity involving radio.

Yesterday was a day I
will always remember at our club meeting. Matt, a teen with a LD passed his
no code. He studied his backside off for the test ....took it 3 times
before. I have more respect for that young fellow than incessant moaners I
see on this list and in other places.

Now that's just a wonderful thing...out of the blue comes a nice
MORAL LECTURE about a younger person "overcoming all obstacles"
"despite physical handicaps" "working hard, hard, hard to pass
a test." Reads like second-rate Reader's Digest material.

I've never met that young person, Tom, just like YOU have never
met hundreds of other sufferers of various things...which I don't
mention in here because they don't apply to THE SUBJECTS AT HAND
either.

At stake is some federal regulations regarding amateur radio, a
HOBBY activity, a recreational pursuit done for personal
enjoyment. "Overcoming obstacles" is NOT a part of the overall
picture. Morality lectures to others don't help a bit...except
to cure the lecturer's mild rage at others not taking things
so damn "seriously" as the lecturer does.

Oh, wow, "overcoming the obstacle of learning morse code!"
Terrific emotionally-loaded over-limit baggage. The real question
ought to be the TEST itself and why it "must" be passed just to
enjoy a radio hobby below 30 MHz. But, that isn't a thing for you
or anyone else who has already passed that TEST, is it? The real
purpose is to keep on with the myth where "hard, hard WORK" is
such a "moral necessity" and perhaps - in a screwball perverse
way - somehow closer to Godliness?

I've known, seen, been around all sorts of folks with handicaps,
just as I've already legally and successfully operated on HF in
five other radio services other than amateur radio. Any TEST
for a LICENSE is just a regulatory tool of the federal government.
That license is NOT an academic achievement, is NOT soem magic
talisman that one "Must" posssess in order to operate any radio
transmitter below 30 MHz. Morsemanship isn't a "qualification"
to operate below 30 MHz...I was long-ago perfectly qualified to
operate a radio transmitter below 30 MHz without morse code smarts
and did. That morse TEST is an artificiality of old-time emotion
that has long-since passed its usefulness. The TEST itself, and
the license, is just a regulatory tool...for a radio HOBBY.

Those who want to preach a ham radio LIFESTYLE will be outraged
at the above. TS. I got a new punch and am set for lots of
cards. I'm a bit sick and tired of these emotionally-loaded
MORALITY plays by the self-righteous unfolding in this stage.
A lot of readers are feeling the same way. Put on a bad
performance and you get bad reviews. TS. That's show biz...