Bonnie Quigg ([email protected])
Fri, 10 Jul 1998 15:09:37 -0700
I have a thought concerning the line Bono sings from the
Band-Aid song, "Do they know it is Christmas?" to wit:
I have always had trouble with the sentiment "Thank God
its them and not you..." (suffering terrible tragedies). I mean,
I understand what people intend when they voice that line...
you should be grateful you are not suffering like these poor
people are.
However, the line always strikes me wrong...as if
we are asked to gloat over our good fortune, rather than feeling
sorry for the misfortune of others. I know that the people who
say this line have no intention of gloating. Their motives are
pure. I guess it is just the unfortunate way the English language
is that makes it kind of ambiguous and always leaves me queasy.
Anyone else ever notice this? Or am I just being hypersensitive?
How does this translate into another language? Is it ambiguous in,
say, Spanish? or French?
Bonnie Quigg
[email protected]
PS Anyone got some suggestions for a (clean) cutesy U2 handle for
my email signature on Wire? Email me privately on that.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Fri Jul 10 1998 - 15:15:27 PDT