Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!elbereth.rutgers.edu!newport.rutgers.edu!waldron From: waldron@newport.rutgers.edu (James Waldron) Newsgroups: news.groups Subject: Re: misc.headlines.unitex moderator RESIGNS Summary: A posting by the Director of UNITEX. An independent VIEW and a reality check on misc.headlines.unitex from the 'Heartland of America' Message-ID: Date: 24 Nov 89 13:59:53 GMT References: <3708@ccnysci.UUCP> <2388@stl.stc.co.uk> <9739@zodiac.ADS.COM> <2441@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 158 From: Jeanne Garner To: Unitex Subj: Causes and Bank Accounts Bank Accounts & Greenpeace: An Opinion From the Hinterlands Arriving by way of I-37 from almost any point in the United States, one is effectively funneled by the freeway down to Ocean Drive, where the first impression of Corpus Christi is that of an attractive small town lazily sunning itself by the sea. It is deceptively affluent there on Ocean Drive, where the azure water of the Gulf of Mexico, brightly dotted with the colorful sails of the wind surfers, approaches the well-manicured grounds of the estates lining this grand thoroughfare. Situated nearly alone in that section of the South Coast of Texas, Corpus Christi is relatively isolated from the rest of Texas, as, indeed, it is remote in almost every way possible from the rest of the United States. No one, it is rightfully said in these parts, comes to Corpus Christi on their way to anywhere else. Once one leaves the opulence of the mansion-lined Ocean Drive, one begins to see what the city fathers hope will never appear on any of the tourist literature, for, to be sure, in Corpus Christi, tourism is nearly the only industry, and the wages of tourism shall surely be minimum, to put it in terms appropriate to the predominantly fundamentalist populace. There is plenty of poverty to go around, and middle- to upper-class neighborhoods sport HUD's for sale signs along with the so-called "poor" sections of town. With oil gone bust, and drought unabated by prayers or technology, the air is one of impoverishment. We see it in the frustration evident in the posture of the man on the street, in the rusted car in the drive of a once-luxurious house, in the lawns and parks no one can afford to water, now burnt nearly black by the sun. There is an equal and corresponding poverty of literacy and its companion, information, as well, which cannot be totally explained by the city's location at the end of a long road from anywhere. This conspicuous deficiency is rooted more in the small town-ness of the city, and its ostrich-like attitudes, so hopeful that if facts are not discussed, or are ignored, they will go away. Unpleasant subjects, if discussed at all, must have prurient value: satanism, perhaps, or sexual scandal involving the socially or politically prominent. The network news, such as it is, intrudes upon this enforced tranquillity with some of the harsher realities of the outside world, or at least the limited vision of world affairs that the newsertainment seems able to provide. And, when such fare is imposed upon the local lead stories of how a proposed Putt Putt Golf establishment will be a tourist bonanza, providing up to a dozen new jobs, one can almost be forgiven for thinking events halfway around the world seem, at best, a little unrealistic, perhaps even unimportant. Thus it is, that while the rest of the city's populace was watching the mini-cammed talking heads and the apparently same tapes shown over and over on all three networks of agitated, churning crowds on Tianemen Square this summer, those who owned computers and modems, and received an electronic information service called Unitex from somewhere in Hoboken, New Jersey, began reading items much more personal and descriptive: BEIJING (AP) - The sky flickers orange and black over the bridge at Muxidi as flames roll through two buses. Bullets whistle and zing. Tear gas canisters boom. ''Fascists! Fascists!'' chants the crowd. The People's Liberation Army has entered Beijing to liberate the city from the people. Bloodied residents, sprawled on three-wheeled pedicabs, are pushed howling in pain up side streets where ill-equipped doctors pound on chests. The doctors' mouths are already red with blood from mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. ''He's gone, we've lost him!'' one medic yells as a man with a bullet hole in his chest gurgles and shakes. -.-.-.-.- In addition to such deeply moving accounts of the struggles for freedom, life, and sustenance in a hostile world, we have read, variously, opinions from the extremes of both right and left, and from all points in between, uncensored and usually uncommented. On Unitex, unlike the evening newsertainment programmes, intelligence is generally assumed, and we are not insulted with explanations of what has just been said. The city of Corpus Christi, Texas, is not located in a technologically undeveloped part of the world; nor, I suspect, is this city unique in its paucity of information on an international basis. Unitex provides a truly vital service to such areas, in the U.S. and abroad, and produces it with the efficiency and the speed only electronic technology can provide. In addition, it is, for all practical purposes, free to all of us except for the price of a phone call. Recently Dr. Waldron, the moderator of this superb echo, sent out a request for funding aid. Considering the quality of Unitex, it seemed a reasonable request. And yet, one voice from Europe dissented. "We think it is wrong", said Jilles Groenendijk of the Dutch BBS, "to charge for a non-commercial information network." Fortunately, it has not come to that. It is still free of charge (other than for, as we mentioned, the phone call) to all who are able to access it. And yet, the quality and quantity of information which Unitex brings to everyone in three Fido-net zones all over the world, including the remote South Coast of Texas, does not come without a price. And that price can be enormous, both in terms of actual cold, hard cash, and in man hours spent in preparation of the data. And, remember, we have not yet figured in the cost of the equipment, and the phone bills. Jilles goes on to suggest, "In stead of giving us money you do better, giving it to GREENPEACE!" Actually, Jilles has approximately one-third of a good idea. Giving monies to the cause of your choice is important. Add personal involvement, and it becomes even more potent. But without one extremely critical ingredient, neither of the above two thirds may ever come to pass. That ingredient is information. If there were no information network such as Unitex or Greenpeace, the numbers of persons aware of the problems and successes of our favorite causes would be greatly diminished. These services have brought invaluable information to the attention of who knows how many thousands of persons, many of whom may not have had access to it otherwise. Let us not, please, cut off these sources. This is an uneasy, unpredictable world. Nothing is certain, except for this: an uninformed populace is terribly easy to mislead and, perhaps eventually, to subjugate. Information and education may well be the most priceless commodities we can hope to grasp. These are, in addition, the first requirements in effecting change, no matter what viewpoint you may embrace. Certainly they are the most effective weapons available for doing war against the methods that would manipulate our minds in the slick tradition of Madison Avenue. Even in America, where much is made of freedom of the press, the "right" of the free press belongs mainly to the person who owns the press. Like it or not, we live in a money-based society, and nearly everything has a monetary price attached to it. Dr. Waldron and Unitex, in spite of financial shortages, have managed to continue to furnish the Unitex echo, uncensored, critically up to date, and without demanding payment from the receivers. When writing checks to Greenpeace or other worthy causes, please do not forget the source of your information. Dr. Waldron and his group from Unitex cannot do it all alone forever. Should Unitex have to cease operations due to lack of funding, or even be diminished in scope because of that lack, it would be a woefully harsh commentary on the importance of knowledge and information in a world transformed daily by events that, without the reporting by inspired writers around the world, may never come to our attention. Freedom of the press, so closely linked with freedom of thought, can be costly, and Unitex, with its almost total lack of bias, is one of the freest of presses that I have encountered. Without it, who knows? A freelance writer on the South Coast of Texas may succomb to the illusions of talking heads with microphones, and come to believe that the Berlin Wall was a myth all along, and that, after all, the important news of the week is the problem of people--many of them unwashed--wading in the fountains in downtown Corpus Christi. And, of course, whether or not witchcraft might be involved with such irrational behavior. --- Msg V4.0 * Origin: Le Hermitage (1:107/30157.2) SEEN-BY: 19/9 101/192 105/42 107/3 501 607 820 132/111 141/488 SEEN-BY: 163/162 221/71 520/501 4000/1 30157/2