As Rick said in his original post, this is a 'hot button' issue in the US. Same thing as the abortion issue, the immigrant issue and a few others: people have long ago made up their minds, either pro or con, and simply cannot in any discuss said issues; they simply go to the center of the proverbial ring and start swinging.
I started that thread and was very hesitant to post it in the first place for this exact reason. But I had a little hope that this group could try and claw onto a bit of civility (which everyone has, understanding some in the conversation are extremely polarized, myself included, toward one side or the other) and if all went south, one of the swift- acting moderators would either throw it into the arena (where I would no longer see it) or just lock the thread and be done with it.
Forums such as this one where a lot of us <sorta'> know each other and have a good sense of who and what each person is are great places to try and discuss such things. If it is possible to do so at all, this is a good place to do it. But it has not been 24 hours since I started that other thread so there is plenty of time and room for it to turn nasty yet; it is totally under our control how it proceeds.
Brian
maybe its just me but I get paranoid seeing this sort of post after just 3 replies all of which appear civil
NB started new thread in order to be "civil" and not go off topic