>What if I owned the only food store in town and I refused to
>sell you food because of your last name. What if I told you
>that everyone knows that people with your last name share a
>nationality that is known to rob and steal from people and I
>simply cannot contribute to the town's crime problem by
>selling you food.

I agree that would be wrong; Just because some people with a last name have done wrong does not mean evreybody who has that name should suffer consequences. That is discrimination. However we are compareing apples and oranges here. A Last Name is used to identify somebody where as a regular words in our launguages have definitions and meaning. If my last name was Kill well that is just a distinguisher. However the word kill takes on a completely different meaning in everyday conversation that obvioulsy can have a completely differnt use. Things need to be analyized acccording to use within a given context.
>
>The meaning of a name or word may vary greatly between one
>person and the next. It's best to withhold judgment based
>only on a name or word and examine situations more
>completely.

I absouletly agree, and also we have to consider that people have different points of view also. This is the basis that lawyers go to town with. What exactly is the truth? Whos truth? We have a launguage that we all use to communicate but different variables come into play that can alter meaning. When I look at a situation I try to look at it impartially....not give in to my own predjudices but what is actually happening and how it can be preceived by people on different sides of the situation. What actually happened? how was it perceived? was the reactions of people acurate to what actually happened or did they bend things to suit them? DO we have all the facts? Im I or we prone to certain stereo types? so on and so forth. Being a judge in a court of law must really be difficult. Everybody has a tnedency to stretch truth their way. I sometimes like to debate a subject from differnet points of view just because I like to debate. I enjoy debating I just hope that no hard feelings come from differnet points of view. I like the challenge of grabbing the other side of the popular view at times. hahah

Garbru