How does one tackle "Francophobia"?

[WindRavenX]

Let us say there is a group on campus that is known as the "Boycott France" group, complete with a list of French companies to be boycotted.
They have a place for comments.
What should I type for them?
(This is coming from a chick who has French first and last names, and a family history in France, so I'm taking this a wee bit personally)

[skypilot]

1. What should you type for them?

"Baise toi!!!"

Is that how you say you know what in French?

[WindRavenX]

5. great minds think alike

=) :hi:

OMG, these people are assholes.

[dutchdemocrat]

2. France supported USA against the Brits. Period.

America probably could not have won its freedom from the British during the American Revolution without the help of the French. France provided arms, ships, money, and men to the American colonies. Some Frenchmen - most notably the Marquis de Lafayette, a close friend of George Washington - even became high-ranking officers in the American army. It was an alliance of respect and friendship the French would not forget.

Almost 100 years later, in 1865, according to Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, a successful 31-year-old sculptor, several French intellectuals opposed to the oppressive regime of Napoleon III were at a small dinner party discussing their admiration for America's success in establishing a democratic government and abolishing slavery at the end of the Civil War. The dinner was hosted by Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye. Laboulaye was a scholar, jurist, abolitionist and a leader of the "liberals," the political group dedicated to establishing a French republican government modeled on America's constitution.

During the evening, talk turned to the close historic ties and love of liberty the two nations shared. Laboulaye noted there was "a genuine flow of sympathy" between the two nations, and called France and America "the two sisters."

As he continued speaking, reflecting on the centennial of American independence only 11 years in the future, Laboulaye commented, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if people in France gave the United States a great monument as a lasting memorial to independence and thereby showed that the French government was also dedicated to the idea of human liberty?"

Laboulaye's casual question struck a responsive chord in Bartholdi. Years later, recalling the dinner, Bartholdi wrote that Laboulaye's idea "interested me so deeply that it remained fixed in my memory."

So was sown the seed of inspiration that would become the Statue of Liberty.

"To the sculptor form is everything and is nothing. It is nothing without the spirit - with the idea it is everything."


- Victor Hugo, May 13, 1885

http://www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/sl/history/liberty.html

[Book Lover]

3. You might remind them about Lafayette

and that if Ben hadn't convinced the French that it was in their best interest to smack the British with their navy, our nation would merely be a Commonwealth of the UK, and every one of these schmucks a British subject of the Crown.

[BringEmOn]

4. Fear of spaghetti-o's?

[bvar22]

6. You can have my French Fries...

..when you pry them from my cold, dead, GREASY fingers!!!

[MrModerate]

7. What's French for "Boycott Brainless Twits"?

Get that and then list the names of the supporters of the group as the "Twit Companies" to be boycotted.

[antigone382]

8. Ahem...French soldiers have fought and died alongside us in Afghanistan.

Their crude, ignorant, meaningless boycott is a slap in the face to the sacrifice those brave soldiers have made in solidarity with us, and shows a very unAmerican lack of compassion for their families; they should be honored regardless of their spoken language or country of origin. And when it comes to not wanting to be involved in another country's wars, need I mention our betrayal of the French during the French revolution, after their aid was crucial to our own battle for independence?

Patriotism and support for our soldiers is an understandable and commendable sentiment...however, it should not cause us to participate in senseless jingoism, untempered by historical knowledge or understanding, that only sows more division into an already hate-filled world.

[dutchdemocrat]

9. The Brits are more likely enemies...

One could easily make the case that the British are the Oldest
Enemy of these United States. We actually fought two wars against the British; almost fought two more wars against the British; and got roped into two World Wars that were the result of horrible, horrible British (and French) schemes and RealPolitik Statecraft. (Read 'Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,' the loathsome (SECRET) Munich Treaty of 1938, The'Treaty of Versailles,' events surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania and the 'Mexican Memorandum' which was actually used to bring the US into WWI.

[KurtNYC]

10. "We are all Americans"

This was the response by France on September 12th of 2001. Osama is not in Iraq. France was right then and is right now.

Are they boycotting the truth?

[saltpoint]

11. A pro-France DUer here, weighing in.

The Statue of Liberty is a pretty good response for any anti-French comments.

We owe the French quite a lot for our own Revolution.

Shame on whoever's running that "Boycott France" crap.

[Devlzown]

12. Remind them that

Germany also opposed the war in Iraq just as much as the French did. The British also are opposed -- Tony Blair continues to go against the will of the people of Britain. Also, from the numbers I've seen, at least half of Americans now believe the war was a mistake. I also have a French last name and am sick to death of all this talk against France. If these fools want to boycott everyone who doesn't agree with Bush, they can start right here at home. Make them realize just how alone they are in the world.

[Justitia]

13. Remind them we would not even be a country w/out the French

and the masterful diplomat Ben Franklin, of course!

These idiots have no idea about their own nation's history.

As a smart sort of person, look up the exact # of French casualties in the Revolutionary War. I don't remember the exact #, but it is quite surprising. Not to mention they financed the enterprise....

[femmecahors]

14. I'm all for the boycott . . .

it keeps a lot of American idiots out of France . . . my newly adopted country.

But if you want to write an e-mail on their site, I suggest that you point out that for this boycott to be thorough the U.S. needs to also boycott the following cities and state:

Louisville
St. Louis
Cour d'Alene
Baton Rouge
New Orleans
Lousiana
Des Moines
Detroit
Sauk St. Marie
Paris, Texas
Havre, Montana
and any town with "ville" in its name, the list is pretty endless but I don't have an atlas at my disposal right now!

[Bridget Burke]

15. Well, if the campus group is so eager to protect the USA...

Why are they limiting themselves to boycotting a country that has usually been our ally?

Shouldn't they be signing up to fight for the Red, White & Blue?

(My father was shot down over France in 1943. The Resistance smuggled him out of the country so he avoided time in a POW camp.)

[mitchum]

16. Tell them that Americans would be speaking English if it weren't...

for the French

[applegrove]

17. Call them scapegoatters and remind them Jesus died so that human

beings would stop scapegoating each other.

[Village Idiot]

18. How about reminding them that they owe their liberty to France...

1781 - Battle of Yorkton....

This was before the US stabbed them in the back by treating with the British bilaterally...

[WindRavenX]

19. thanks a lot guys!

I'm going with the American Revolution twist on these assholes :hi:
I &hearts France!