Being offended by songs and other cultural indices from the past does not mean that I think that those cultural products should be erased. While I would prefer that these types of songs not be sung in public, I would not want there to be any law to prohibit their public performance. And I support research and educational study of such songs as a means of learning from them.

Also, for what it's worth, I believe that it is a legitimate use of this forum's bandwidth for its members & guests to discuss songs and/or other cultural indices that some indivuals remember with nostalgia and other folks, or perhaps the same individuals, consider to be offensive. Indeed, in my opinion, such discussions can be interesting & informative. Furthermore, these types of online discussions may also be of educational and research value from a sociological if not folkloric standpoint because they not only shed a light on current attitudes & opinions about those subjects that some folks consider to be culturally offensive, and these discussions also can provide interesting studies about group dynamics.

[This last paragraph is in response to Q's 21 Dec 08 - 05:46 PM post to this thread. Q, I owe you a debt of gratitude for introducing me to this forum, and for teaching me-through your example-the value of researching & citing sources for songs and other material. However, this debt does not stop me from sometimes vehemently disagreeing with you regarding some subjects. This happens to be one of them.]