MNE-AESOP supports the HALO Trust campaign Comments on the petition
| The following people have posted their comments about the petition to ban the global manufacture, sale, distribution and use of landmines, which will be sent to the HALO Trust in support of their campaign.
The last shall be first ...
Numbering is in reverse order. The last person to post their comment is at the top of the list.
|
|
- Justin Campbell
Nitzuj2002@yahoo.com
122 Eastern Ave
Springfield
OH
USA
23 October 2007 TIME: 04:05:21
"A tribute to Princess Diana? How about you start a petition to name the tunnel after her? As far as mine usage goes, it is a VERY effective tool for lowering the morale of enemy troops. As for the children... They were going to grow up to be the very same terrorists using IEDs anyhow. So the less the merrier. If their parents gave a damn about the bastards, they would demine the areas they send their children to play in themselves. All is fair in war, just be happy that chemical and biological warfare is banned. Hippies."
-
Jack Tanis
jack_tanis@yahoo.com
614 Broome Street
Fernandina Beach, FL 32034-3837
USA
and
Martin Noble
banmines [at] copyedit.co.uk 28a Abberbury Road, Iffley
Oxford
Oxon
UK
03 September 2007 TIME: 21:07625:46
Banmines, the Internet Petition Online to Ban Landmines Worldwide, debuted 3 September 1997. Today marks its 10th anniversary. Banmines is a decade old. Created in and dedicated to the memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, herself an exemplary tribute to noblesse oblige, Banmines perseveres to preserve the goal of a life cut tragically short, the global abolition of anti-personnel mines. Forty days following her death, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and an anti-landmine activist shared the Nobel Prize for Peace.
What good is there in something intended solely to kill or to maim? To us at Banmines, the answer is obvious: none. Aggravating this are the indeterminate longevity and the indiscriminate nature of the landmine’s destructiveness. Add ludicrous to obvious.
The past ten years have seen much if not most of the world engaged in, on the brink of or poised for violent conflict or outright war. Although substantially eclipsing the landmine issue, the issue remains. Millions upon countless millions of landmines deployed across the world have failed, as miserably as they are miserable, to make one single soldier or civilian one iota safer. Quite the opposite, in fact and as expected: long-since buried landmines continue taking their gruesome toll, claiming life and causing death. Despite this, major world powers, including the People's Republic of China, India, the Russian Federation and the United States, stubbornly, arrogantly and, worst of all, ignorantly refuse to accept and to adopt the Ottawa, or Mine Ban, Treaty. Formally the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, signatory countries agree and pledge not to manufacture, stockpile or use anti-personnel mines.
Positively and productively, Banmines provides a coherent, tolerant forum for thousands of voices from all corners of the world, and furnishes a veritable library of relevant, useful information and knowledge, much from individual contributors. Banmines has been the subject of many classroom projects in diverse nations. If societies ever enduringly change for the better, it will be today’s young students who initiate those changes tomorrow.
In her short yet full 36 years, Diana left a powerful and passionate, yet gentle and compassionate, legacy.. It is our hope that Banmines serves, however humbly or modestly, to keep that legacy alive and to perpetuate the good it embodies. As we enter our second decade, we wish peace and prosperity, and health and happiness, to one and all.
- Martin Noble
banmines [at] copyedit.co.uk 28a Abberbury Road, Iffley
Oxford
Oxon
UK
10 August 2005 TIME: 10:25:46
Dear English Grammar
Many thanks for your comment. The only spelling of 'lanmines' on my website is from a Banmines
petitioner in a comment on the banning of landmines. As creator and
administrator of Banmines I reserve the right to allow petitioners to spell
any word any way they like.
I live in Oxford, UK and this is a British site. I therefore do not use
Websters (which is an American dictionary) as the style guide for my site,
although I do often use Websters as I am an editor and work regularly on
texts written in both UK English and US English spellings.
There are two acceptable variant spellings of land mines:
* land mines
* landmines
For brevity's sake I prefer the latter.
I suspect you may have confused the spelling of landmines with
that of Banmines, which is a made-up portmanteau word meaning 'Ban
mines' and which is the name of the website containing the International
Petition to Ban Landmines Worldwide.
Finally, I am intrigued with your new phrase 'thats ones not'. I suspect that you won't find this one in your Websters either.
Martin Noble
Banminez
- English Grammar
grammar@spellme.plz
10 August 2005 TIME: 03:51:05
"do you know it says "lanmines" on the page? Pretty sure thats ones not in my websters (should be Land Mines??)."
- Charles White
vinniethehitman@hotmail.com
USA
26 August 2004 TIME: 16:46:16 [BST]
"Landmines shouldnt be banned...stupid people step on em all the time...my grandaddy was a minesweeper and he never got no blown up stupid yuppies KEEP MINES"
- Jeff White
jrwhite@hotmail.com
PSC 813 Box 136
FPO AE 09620
NY
USA
June 30, 2003 TIME: 14:51:20
"Mines are not evil in themselves, any more than any other weapon. Moreover, not all mines are laid indiscriminately, or without any plan or survey.
Furthermore, children are not helpless against mines, as my own soldiers have proven through their mine awareness efforts in the Balkans, etc. Mine awareness saves lives.
Mine removal is indeed very difficult, perhaps impossible to effectively and finally do.
Clearly, when mines are lain, they must be recovered. Professional armies do this. There are no US-laid minefields out there killing anyone today. None.
The banning of a weapon like a land mine is a poor excuse for taking real and substantive action aimed at resolving the reasons for conflict, or punishing aggressors, such as north Korea, Communist Vietnam, the former Soviet Union, etc.
These legalistic efforts result in disproportionate harm to those who have the most respect for law and decency, and no harm whatever to despots against whom these weapons are a well-justified preventive measure.
And finally, please consider this: abortion kills far more innocent children than land mines ever did. Consider your views on that issue before you deny me a weapon which I can use to save the lives of the soldiers I am responsible for, and which I will recover when I move to another location.
Thank you."
- Abracadabra
January 31, 2003 TIME: 15:15:06
"Do you guys realise that when a person in a farming community is maimed by a landmine, his family disowns him because he's no use to them? Do you realise that this means he has no livelihood whatsoever? And yet you rattle on about landmines being "useful" and so on!"
- Matt
oreokid205@aol.com
United States
August 20, 2002 TIME: 15:05:15
" You people are idiots!!!! A landmine didn`t kill Princess Diana, a car crash in Paris did. Landmines are an important method of warfare, and I`m not saying war is good, but they`ve certainly helped out. Most of these landmine accidents happen in poor countries like Egypt. Is it OUR fault they aren`t doing anything about it? This petition will never work. A petition only works if someone is doing things the petitioners are against. So what`s to come of this petition, is anyone REALLY going to send it to an army or a country`s president? We have to woory about more important things, like the Mideast situation, or Saddam Hussein. Find something elso to do!"
- Leo
loearnold@hotmail.com
12
Oxford
U.K
April 30, 2002 TIME: 16:28:28
"Thanks to princess dianas annoying campaign the british army have now lost the capability to place landmines leaving us at a gret disadvantage."
- Bobby Hsu
bobby.hsu@utoronto.ca
711 Bay St.
Toronto
Ontario
Canada
December 17, 2001 TIME: 06:44:57
"When we say that "firefighters are heroes because they risk their lives every day", we don't really mean every firefighter, every day, all day. That is the life of a de-miner. "
- tolan
tolichty@mindspring.com
November 28, 2001 TIME: 19:01:00
"The landmines are vital to the protection and well-being of the south koreans. Would you rather have 1,000 kids die or the entire country of south korea and possibly north korea dead? i would pick the lesser of the two evils. why wouldn't you??????"
- Glenn Sheppard
despolue@peacezine.org
Editor, Peacezine
http://www.peacezine.org
September 18, 2000 TIME: 15:02:26
"Greetings,
This was posted on the Global Perspectives idea page. I thought it might be
of interest to you and that perhaps you could offer this person some help.
"Some years ago I designed a leg prosthesis for war casualties in
Cambodia. It was part of my graduation for a design academy in the
Netherlands (Eindhoven).
Concept was to make the patient independant of the prosthesist.
With this design patients can easily learn to make their own
artifitcial leg without having to walk for several days to a
prosthesist workshop.
Because copying is part of the use of this product, there is no
copyright or patent.
The design is tested in a small group of prosthesist and they were
impressed by the comfort. Since man can't make money with the
product, there is no interest to develop it further (test it longer
and with a bigger group of patients).
You can read more about this design at the following website:
(please click on "leg prothesis" in the topframe)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~inne
Does anybody know what could be done?"
Thanks for your kind attention,
Glenn Sheppard"
- Jack Tanis
jack_tanis@yahoo.com
614 Broome Street
Fernandina Beach
FL 32034-3837
US
September 03, 2000 TIME: 03:49:04
"Today marks the third anniversary of the Banmines initiative. The going has been slower than we originally anticipated. 2,260 petition entries averages to about only 750 a year, less than 2 a day. We had hoped for a significant multiple of that. Yet we came to realise Banmines is not a numbers game. Numbers represent quantity, not quality. Whilst not attaining the former, Banmines surely has attained the latter. We have signatories from every remote corner of the world, everyday, ordinary persons who care passionately for the lives of their neighbours, whether local or global. We revere that spirit, for it was in that very same spirit that Banmines was conceived. That incorruptible spirit moves forward and carries on. We ask you to fuel the hope which drives this spirit by doing what you can to help Banmines raise the level of awareness of the landmines issue. Never underestimate the power of simple acts of caring and compassion. A little can go a long way. Banmines thanks you in earnest for your support."
- Brian
bwussow@mmwg.com
519 Western Ave.
Glen Ellyn
IL
U.S.A.
April 04, 2000 TIME: 04:24:34
"I am doing a project for school on this topic. and it is a good thing you are doing here."
- Martin Noble
banmines [at] copyedit.co.uk 28a Abberbury Road, Iffley
Oxford OX4 4ES
Oxon
UK
September 03, 1999 TIME: 15:53:47
"Two years ago, when Diana was killed in Paris, the streets around Kensington Palace in London were swamped with cellophane-wrapped flowers. This week, once again flowers have appeared outside the Palace. Diana may be gone but the issue she courageously fought for in the last years of her life - the banning of landmines - is still with us. In the wake of Kosovo it was once again the landmines that were doing the killing, and will continue to kill long after the war. Landmines won't go away unless the world makes it its business to get rid of them. Second anniversary of Diana's death - result, no media interest. Second anniversary of Banmines - result, 1500 plus signatures. If you're reading this, please tell everyone you know that it's landmines that cost lives - petitions cost nothing, but maybe they can help change people's minds. Even those of presidents. "
- Jack Tanis
jack_tanis@yahoo.com
614 Broome Street
Fernandina Beach
Florida 32034-3837
United States
September 03, 1999 TIME: 00:31:33
"Banmines, the Internet Online Petition to Ban Landmines Worldwide, began two years ago, on 3 September 1997. Today is Banmines's second anniversary.
As a Web site on the Internet, Banmines has grown and developed. There are versions of it in three different languages, there are multiple viewing options from which to select, and there are three formats for signing the Banmines petition.
Many other Web sites have links to Banmines, and many kind and considerate persons have incorporated links to Banmines in their e-mail signatures. Those involved with the Banmines site are grateful for these sincere expressions of caring and of commitment to the crucial cause Banmines exists to promote and strives to help accomplish. The major search engines have given Banmines good placement, also.
Banmines's first anniversary arrived before the thousandth signature did. This past year has seen only about five hundred additional signatures to the Banmines petition. On this marking of two years of concerted effort, the petition count is just shy of 1,520 signatures. We had hoped for better, and don't know why this hope was not realised.
We do know this. Most persons, in their minds and especially in their hearts, know landmines are not merely wrong but are outrightly evil. Most persons have a strong sense of compassion for the innocent victims of, both those maimed by and those killed by, landmines. We have received poignant messages and other communications that have moved us deeply. These have strengthened our resolve.
Banmines began in earnest. Banmines now enters its third year in earnest. Whilst naturally we would like to see more -- many, many more -- petition signatures, as visual signs of support for our efforts, we understand and accept that, in the long run, right is right and wrong is wrong. Banmines stands, however humbly, for what is right, and is not swayed by popularity contests.
Banmines is dedicated to the long run goal of witnessing the the total abolition of and absence of landmines on our garden planet, Earth. Banmines holds that humankind can not survive with landmines, and their equivalents or counterparts, yet surely can and very well may perish with them. To see its mission to fruition, Banmines is here, is in it, for the duration.
To those who read these words, your support and help are as appreciated as they are needed."
- Click here to view Robert Singleton's essay on landmines.
robertpsingleton@hotmail.com
October 12, 1998 TIME: 23:15:46
Note: BANMINES is willing to host relevant, thoughtful comments and essays on the subject of landmines. Authors' views, and how authors express their views, do not necessarily represent, and may not
represent at all, the official BANMINES view or how that view is expressed on the BANMINES web
site.
- Martin Noble
banmines [at] copyedit.co.uk 28a Abberbury Road, Iffley
Oxford OX4 4ES
Oxon
United Kingdom
September 03, 1998 TIME: 04:47:53
"So Banmines is now one year old today. We still haven't reached 1000 signatures but let's hope that in a year's time this petition will no longer be necessary. It really is true that tiny acts can have powerful effects and you never know where they may come from. Such as the postcard someone sent to Terry Waite while he was in captivity - which renewed his hope. It came from a friend of one of our Banmines petitioners. If we don't believe that this petition can have any effect, we should remember the power of prayer. Enough preaching. I'm off to bed."
- JACK TANIS
jack_tanis@yahoo.com
614 BROOME STREET
FERNANDINA BEACH
FLORIDA 32034-3837
US
September 03, 1998 TIME: 01:25:00
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BANMINES!
A YEAR OLD TODAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 1997 - 3 SEPTEMBER 1998!
NEVER TOO YOUNG OR TOO OLD TO TRY TO DO GOOD, TO TRY TO HELP MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR ALL."
- Maria Leland
Fuzzyria
Columbus Ohio, 361, 43202, Walhalla Rd
Columbus
Ohio
America
August 26, 1998 TIME: 15:15:25
"Land mines are foolish weapons. America has plenty of weapons. We don't need to keep on damaging other people's lives by using land mines."
- ANGELA CAPLE
PERTH
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA
March 07, 1998 TIME: 04:26:03
"I AM INVOLVED IN THE DAG HAMMARSKJOLD TROPHY, IN WHICH WE PRACTICE A MOCK SECURITY COUNCIL OF THE UNITED NATIONS. ONE OF THE ISSUES IS TRYING TO BAN LANDMINES, AND I'M INTERESTED TO KNOW IF CHINA SUPPORTS THIS ORGANISATION"
- Kris Pettigrew
utvol@mindspring.com
Stockbridge
GA
US
October 06, 1997 TIME: 03:36:31
"The idea of banning landmines betrays your colossal naiveté about the nature of war. As a soldier myself, I do fear encountering an enemy landmine, but I fear this no more so than any other weapon my enemy may seek to kill me with.
Like most weapons in use today, landmines are a critical link in the ability of soldiers to defend themselves. Yes they are lethal and yes they do horrible bodily harm - they're supposed to! Your irresponsible drive to ban them is a direct threat to my ability to maximize the safety of my soldiers in time of war.
Even if you could get every nation to sign such an ill-conceived document, do you really think the Irans, Chinas and North Koreas of the world would abide by it? Yet it seems you are more willing to trust nations bent on our destruction than you are your own military to use all weapons responsibly and judiciously.
Yes I am horrified by landmine injuries, but I am much more horrified by well-meaning but ignorant souls who think they can change the nature of war just by feeling bad about it. Do my soldiers and free peoples everywhere a favor, channel your energies into something useful! Thank you."
- Jack Tanis
jack_tanis@yahoo.com
614 Broome Street
Fernandina Beach
Florida 32034-3837
US
October 02, 1997 TIME: 16:37:31
"Contrary to one commentator defending landmines, they are not like the moat of a castle. The deterrent value of the castle moat is its high visibility. Were a castle moat hidden, as are landmines, none would be deterred from attempting to breach the fortification.
The same commentator likens a landmine, attached to a trip wire, to an alarm to awaken a sleeping soldier to the presence of an hostile intruder. Any sound producing mechanism, when tripped, would accomplish that.
The commentator rhetorically asks whether bullets, knives and clubs would be banned as well, faultily comparing the indiscriminate destruction of the landmine to selective, target-specific weapons. Again contrary to the commentator, war need not be experienced for either it or its weapons to be appreciated, any more than a surgeon need undergo surgery to acquire surgical skills or a judge need commit crimes to preside over a trial fairly and justly.
The commentator states landmines are defensive weapons. Weapons are technological devices, intrinsically neutral. As mindless machines, they are instruments of the intentions of those using them; any weapon can be used either offensively or defensively.
Yet beyond the commentator’s error on this point, is the greater point of the lingering, long-lasting and often lethal legacies of certain weapons, regardless of how or of why they were deployed."
- Rita La Serra
gita@thecia.net
52 High St
Stoneham
Ma
Usa
October 01, 1997 TIME: 05:44:44
"I feel that is no need for land mines. Too many suffer for the little that they actually give in protection."
- G.E. Stanford
stan4d@chickasaw.com
September 11, 1997 TIME: 12:05:07
"I understand you are in favor of banning land mines.
Perhaps, if you had been crouching in a frozen foxhole in Korea and saw
300,000 enemy troops come over the hill bent upon taking your life as well
as your buddies, you might want a land mine or two in front of you to stop
them.
Perhaps, if you had been trying to catch a much needed nap in the
sweltering jungle of Vietnam, you might sleep better knowing a trip wire to
a mine would awaken you before your throat became the victim of a machette
wielding sneak in black clothing.
What will you ban next? Bullets? Knives? Clubs?
War has never been nice, but to appreciate the defensive weapons we have,
you must experience it.
Land mines are not an offensive weapon. They are much like the moat of a
castle. Would you ban the moat?
Stanford.
U.S.Army (Ret)
De Oppresso Liber"
- Mike
September 09, 1997 TIME: 03:11:45
"The death of Princess Diana is sad. But I do not agree with your
petition."
- Gerry Davison
gerry@pip.dknet.dk
Wireless Web System
Denmark
September 07, 1997 TIME: 19:02:49
"I am afraid that the prospect of a complete ban on landmines is not a very plausible one - which is why I cannot support your ban. However, we at Wireless Web System, in recognition of the effects of land mines, have developed an "Intelligent" minefield, which will solve many of the practical
problems involved with minefields, as well as most of the ethical problems.
You can see some details on our web page: http://www.pip.dknet.dk/~pip11547."
- James D. Brewer
JAMESEDIT@aol.com
003 Oak Meadow Dr.
Elizabethtown, KY 42701
USA
September 05, 1997 TIME: 16:44:21
"I, too, was troubled greatly by the untimely death of the Princess of Wales.
But while I support the ban in general, the devil is in the details.
Nothing would make me happier than to sign your petition, and I may yet do
so. I struggle, however, with the particulars of the case, to wit, the
Korean Pennisula. As a retired military officer, I know all too well what my active duty colleagues face across the border in North Korea. And the
lessons of Chosin Reservoir cannot and must not be forgotten.
Sadly, if it were not for land mines strung beside the DMZ in Korea, the
North Koreans might well have already tested the United Nations' resolve.
Until a means can be found to replace the deterrent effect of the mines
securing the border, I fear our troops are placed at risk by a land mine
treaty.
Frankly, this causes me a great ethical dilemma. Would such a treaty
lead to armies of the world finding an alternative method to deter
aggression? I would hope so. That would be my primary reason for signing.
Or would it, however well meaning, inadvertently jeapordize the safety of
men and women who I have served alongside?
I must wrestle this matter through. Bear with me."
|