From the letter to the editor of the Deseret News in Salt Lake City:

It is time that someone stood up and stopped the bashing of the French. I am French and have spent my whole life in France with the exception of the last three years in Utah.


I would like to comment on the letter of the man who spent four years there. We may disagree, but we do not hate you. Because the French have such a vast heritage, they have developed an articulate, complex and tolerant way of thinking that does not include such basic feelings as hatred. It would take two cents of euro of intelligence to understand that all the nations who do not want the war have defendable reasons. But then, it would also take tolerance and the ability to understand other languages that only complex minds seem to possess.


So keep your delicious specialties of McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Do boycott France, and let only those smart and open-minded American people visit. Fortunately, there are a few out there.


Marie-Helene Glon

Salt Lake City

I wrote the following reply to her, but I decided not to send it. No sense in returning insults for insults. It's just so-o-o-o inviting.

Marie-Helene Glon's letter is a hilarious self-parody. We may disagree, but we do not hate you. Sure, you don't.


Because the French have such a vast heritage, while Americans just crawled from the primoridal ooze last week and brought no culture with them, they have developed an articulate, complex and tolerant way of thinking that does not include such basic feelings as hatred. Really? Which French diplomat recently described Israel as "that sh**ty little country"? And how many times have we heard French references to our ignorant "cowboy" president? I guess disdain and superciliousness are considered "articulate, complex and tolerant" when you have a vast heritage. Hatred is as hatred does, to paraphrase that typical American, Forrest Gump.


It would take two cents of euro of intelligence to understand that all the nations who do not want the war have defendable reasons. All of them? We'd we happy to consider these defendable reasons, if anybody had articulated any. It's precisely the failure to offer anything other than irrelevant platitudesd and perverse non-arguments like "Inspections are working." and "Iraq is not a threat to its neighbors" that makes Americans so impatient with the footdragging in the U.N. Security Council. Is protecting the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, because he owes you debts that won't be paid if he is overthrown, really defendable? It's not the U.S. who is trading blood for oil. It's the French, Germans and Russians who trade Saddam's oil franchises and cash for the blood of oppressed Iraqis and of Iranians, Kuwaitis, Americans and others killed in the wars he has instigated.


But then, it would also take tolerance and the ability to understand other languages that only complex minds seem to possess. Ah, we provincial Utahns, with such a large percentage of people who speak foreign languages and volunteered to help foreigners who came for the Olympics! It must be torture to live among such intolerant savages.


Do boycott France--No, don't, because the people who produce French products aren't all as ignorant and arrogant as their government. I'm sure they wouldn't describe the new members of NATO as a bunch of children with improper upbringing because they refused to shut up and obey their "elders." They haven't all forgotten the graves at Normandy or the joy of seeing those American and Britsh tanks entering Paris. They have art and excellent architects and nuclear engineers. And they do make excellent cheese.