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From: hgp@houem.UUCP (Howard Page)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Letters for Peace
Message-ID: <276@houem.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Jul-84 23:06:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: houem.276
Posted: Thu Jul 19 23:06:39 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Jul-84 05:07:24 EDT
References: <410@ames.UUCP>, <274@houem.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 45

Sorry. Our system went berserk. Here's my entire article:

>>>If you think that your Letters for Peace are going to get
>>>through the Soviet mail system, then your very naive.  Once
>>>they get wind of the project, (now that you have told them
>>>on the net), they will simply burn your letters.  They have
>>>a bad habit of opening mail over there, it's legal you see.

>>The Soviets may not destroy a letter, if they think it will
>>serve Soviet propaganda.  They may even publish it.
>>-- 

>You guys have rather naive ideas about how efficient the Soviet system
>is.  If you send enough letters a lot will get through.  Also, although
>the Soviet regime is definitely repressive, it's not quite as bad as RR
>would have us believe (although Stalin in the 30's got close).  I was there
>in 68 and had one or two discussions with the locals where they complained
>about their government without looking over their shoulder.  Incidentally,
>the Russian people are about as nice as they come, and they LOVE Americans.
>Now if only they could get their government under control ....

Yes indeed. Russians are warm wonderful people. Sometimes I think about
the fact that, due to the ongoing political and nuclear crazyness, many
Americans never stop to consider and appreciate many of the finer aspects
of Russian culture, such as the kind of intellectual thinking which produced
books like Dostoevsky's  __The_Brothers_Karmazov__.

Wanna' end the arms race? First, learn about your adversary. Maybe our
schools should teach Russian history and language from grades K-12.
Next, wait about 100 years and maybe the Russian's suspiciousness of
foreigners will receed. Maybe we should make Russian our national
language :-). (You have a better idea?) Would you learn a new language
on the possibility it could end the arms race in your grandchildrens'
life??

Remember, as opposed to the Sino-Soviet relationship, history is on
the side of a non-confrontational Soviet-American relationship.

Cheers!

Howard G. Page
..!ihnp4!houem!hgp

P.S. -please- no flames on how naive I am, ect...