[John Sabato]

MM,

I have more than one professional associate whose origins can be recently traced back to Ukraine... and one thing that is typical among them is that in their own language, there are basically no 'articles' used much in common language.

That is not the case in 'the' English language or it's American variant... Articles are not only used, but they are considered required for proper use of the Language. You can't impose the Ukranian grammatical structure on English because it would not only sound like gibberish, but would sound crude...

If you are offended by what you percieve as bigotry in a post by a forum member you have many alternatives, but one of them is not a bad mannered reply or you are guilty of the same behavior of which you charge the other member of the forum.

You can report the post via the mechanism that is provided at the end of each post: (See the 'report post' ICON at the bottom of each post)

You can inquire in a congenial manner to the originator to try and educate him or her...

or contact him or her via Private Message and vent your disagreement...

I understand your feelings regarding the history of the Ukraine, and now all who have read your post know better...but those other 280 million Americans who have not read your post will probably still refer to Ukraine as THE Ukraine with no disrepect intended. I don[t know anyone in THE USA who wouldn't have made the same mistake (if there was one) that Mr. Mikhail Zeleny made.

There are rules for the use of this forum by registered members and the only thing that is really NOT tolerated is bad manners... I respectfully request that you pull yours into "normal" mode and consider other perspectives before you cry "bigot" on this forum.

Now let's all cool off and get back to Lugers...