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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!whuxlb!pyuxll!eisx!npoiv!npois!hogpc!houxm!hocda!spanky!ka
From: ka@spanky.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Boy, am I catching it.....
Message-ID: <416@spanky.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Jul-83 18:58:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: spanky.416
Posted: Wed Jul 13 18:58:11 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Jul-83 21:40:32 EDT
References: <490@ihuxi.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Holmdel, N. J.
Lines: 36


	Why all the fuss about the use of the word
	"Faggots"? I thought this was net.flame?  If I want
	to use this word I'll use it.

	People are really getting upset at my using this
	word when the [gist] of my article went completely
	over there heads...  Why is it that only a couple
	people bothered to ask "Who the heck are the
	Vashchenko's"?

First, if you are unhappy with the reception given your article, maybe
you didn't really want to use the word after all.  The fact that there
was one person out there (spaf@gatech) who didn't dismiss your article
out of hand upon seeing the word "faggot" suggests you were exception-
ally lucky.

But to respond to your question:  No, I do not agree that the release
of the Vashchenko's is more important than Homosexual Pride Week.  Just
what is so important about the decision of the Soviet Union to allow
*one* family to emigrate?  There are *thousands* of people who want to
emigrate from the Soviet Union.  The important story is that the Soviet
Union has reduced emigration from the Soviet Union to a trickle, appar-
ently in response to Reagan's Cold War retoric.

The press seems to be in love with "human interest" stories.  The current
fervor over this girl (I don't know her name and don't care) who wrote
Andropov a letter about the nuclear arms race is sickenning.  Some bureau-
crat writes a reply to this girl, the Soviet Union shells out a few thous-
sand dollars (at most) to pay for her visit to the Soviet Union, and in
return the Soviet Union gets oodles of free publicity.  Why should the
press cover the story?  The story has no real significance except to show
that Andropov has an understanding of the deficeincies of the American
press, a point that members of the press do not seem particularly quick
to point out.
				Kenneth Almquist