Hello Ron:

Your statement  "we're comparing our having fun traveling to various dances to the widespread persecution of an ethnicity (the worst being the Holocaust)."

was an intentional, malicious, misguided   personal attack on every contradancer who speaks the words "dance gypsy," who uses the word "gypsy" when teaching a dance, who has a T-shirt or bumper sticker with those innocuous words,  or who converses about "gypsy" figure--no matter how much socially consciousness that dancer may be in thought and in deed.      

You probably should not participate in any public forum about even a mildly controversial topic, if you take personal affront at someone who, with an accompanying explanation, refers to an idea you  expressed as absurd.

Maybe you need a more specific example.   In the past 6 months I attended two dance  weekends which featured a particular well known caller.    The first weekend this caller used a surrogate for "gypsy."   The next weekend, several months later,  this caller used the term "gypsy."   Any suggestion that this caller was now "having fun" with "the persecution of an ethnicity (the worst being the Holocaust)"  will strike most people as absurd--whether you think so or not.

And your associating with  the Holocaust any aspect of contra dancing seems six million times more tasteless and inappropriate than someone  referring, with explanation, to an idea of yours as absurd.  You owe everyone on this list an apology

Michael Fuerst      802 N Broadway      Urbana IL 61801      217 239 5844