Reply-To: dcs@witsend.tnet.com
From: "D. C. Sessions" <dcs@witsend.tnet.com>
Organization: Nobody but me -- really
X-Newsposter: TMail version 1.20R
Subject: Re: Freedom In U.S.A.
Distribution: world
Lines: 47

In <1993Apr25.221603.3260@Virginia.EDU>, ab4z@Virginia.EDU () (Andi Beyer)  wrote:
# 
# jaa12@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu  writes:
# > Dear Mr. Beyer:
# > 
# > It is never wise to confuse "freedom of speech" with "freedom"
# > of racism and violent deragatory."
# > 
# > It is unfortunate that many fail to understand this crucial 
# > distinction.
# 
# 	In fact, if a speach was not offensive to some, its
# protection under Freedom of speach laws would be useless. It is
# speach that some find questionable that must be protected, be
# it religiously blasphemous or inherently racist. It is only
# through civilized discourse and not scare tactics that one can
# enlighten those that one perceives to be ignorant. That is the
# idea behind freedom of expression.
# 	What you find offensive might be perceived as truth by
# some and what they might find offensive might be your belief.
# It is only through free exchange of ideas (and insults as the
# case seems to be with this channel) that one can change
# another's erring ways.That is why Jefferson said that here 
# we are not afraid to "tolerate error so long as reason is left to 
# combat it". 

  Does this mean that YOU are volunteering to wade through the
  Mutlu/Argic deluge that comes in every day?  Some of us are
  tired of being dragged into content-free pissing contests
  with reflexive bigots.  We INTENSELY dislike being stuck between
  letting this crap pass without comment as though it were
  unremarkable and replying to it and getting sucked in again.

  Let's keep some perspective here.

  IMHO, the Josh's policy of forwarding the garbage in question,
  without comment, to the relevant sysadmin strikes a good
  balance.  The stuff was, after all, PUBLISHED on a public
  forum -- from that very site, yet.  Hardly a matter of
  confidentiality or copyright.  If the local administration
  wants to do something about it, they have that right.  If
  not, nobody's twisting their arms.

--- D. C. Sessions                            Speaking for myself ---
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