Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think.com!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!7!J.P.THARIN
From: J.P.THARIN@f7.n300.z1.fidonet.org (J P THARIN)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Terminology as a Red Herring
Message-ID: <13726@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 90 00:59:52 GMT
Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP
Reply-To: J.P.THARIN@f7.n300.z1.fidonet.org
Distribution: misc
Organization: FidoNet node 1:300/7 - DIBS, Tucson AZ
Lines: 37
Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP

Index Number: 10009

Naaaaadiiiiiine!!!
     Hey, I'll be the first to admit that I've got a real problem with
labels. The problem isn't in the issuance of one of the greasy little
things, but in the acceptance of them. How anyone can accept being placed
in a nice tidy box is beyond my comprehension. You have there one of the
core precepts of blind prejudice, this easy packaging of another's role,
attributes, abilities, and so on. Being saddled with a neat label gives
some people an easy excuse to deal me out, to discount my words, and so
on. My own reputation in this world, good or bad, is to be earned entirely 
by me. You have no right to prejudge my worth by assigning an easy label
to me.
        
     Well, how's THAT for an example? Insert any label and the analogy
should work well enough. The way other people have encapsulated my being
has held me back and held me down many little times in this life. When you 
say labels are good, we just GOTTA be talking about different things. A
label that allows you to get a handle on reality is not the same as one
that lets others get a death grip on you! No one should define another on
the basis of their deviation from an arbitrary physical (or other)
"normalcy". 
         
     Anyhow, I'd never dump on you. I'm dumping on Fido. 
        
Jesse Peter
	 
	 
"Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has
 to eat them."
	Adlai Stevenson (Speech 9/5/52)
	 
 

--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!300!7!J.P.THARIN
Internet: J.P.THARIN@f7.n300.z1.fidonet.org