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Subject:Re: And In the U.S., They're Forced To Buy Retail From:Steve English <ink -at- MICROS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 13 Jun 1995 07:46:58 -0400
Dear Karen,
I found your "tripe" funny and inoffensive.
<snip>
<flame1>
Is this tripe supposed to be funny? Human rights abuses are all too common for
many people in this world, and I for one don't consider them an appropriate
subject for jokes.
I live on a planet where dozens of children starved to death in the time it took
me to write this; where incurable viruses that feed on my species are springing
up at an alarming rate; where the jungle that makes the air I breathe is being
burned off so that the thin soil underneath can be turned into poorly producing
farms; where blowing up babies with fuel oil and fertilizer is considered by
some
an acceptable form of political expression. I don't know where your first
detractor
is from, but I am from Earth. I can't fix all of these conditions, warp drive
won't
be invented for another 300 years, and if I don't find ways to laugh at the
horrors
around me I will go screaming mad.
<snip>
<flame2>
This might come closer to being funny if it didn't try to come
across as a report by a real-life organization (STC). I know you
aren't the author, but I thought I'd let you know that I find it
offensive. [the author] should have made up some humorously named
organization for his satire.
It took me a while to realize that your posting was not really a report from
STC. I think it was line two. Forgive me for being blatantly darwinian here,
but anybody slow enough not to realize this was a humor piece (or unwilling to
read the heading) deserves to be fooled. Or as Eli Wallach said in "The
Magnificent Seven", "If God had not intended them to be shorn, he would not
have made them sheep."
By now you have probably received a private message from Eric Ray telling you
that your humor piece was not appropriate material for the list. (Never mind
how I happen to know this.) He's probably right. But anybody telling you it was
unfunny or offensive needs a new shipment of lighten ups.
Steve English
ink -at- micros -dot- com
I do not speak for my employers, and boy are they relieved.
