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From: lydgate@reed.UUCP (Chris Lydgate)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: another don Black type
Message-ID: <1175@reed.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Mar-85 03:48:56 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.1175
Posted: Tue Mar 26 03:48:56 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 28-Mar-85 23:51:59 EST
References: <894@eisx.UUCP>
Reply-To: lydgate@reed.UUCP (Chris Lydgate)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 46
Keywords: anti-semitism, cheese
Summary: Samuel jumps the gun 

Sometimes people on the net get the wrong impression. Worse,
sometimes they broadcast this misapprehension worldwide. Sadly,
such is the case with Samuel and Monica.
Samuel accuses Monica of anti-semitism, based solely on the
following sentence:
>> I think you should turn your
>> efforts to salvation and perhaps to composing some catchy
>> ditties about Moses or Abraham for prompt dumping in n.r.j.
In article <894@eisx.UUCP> sms@eisx.UUCP (Samuel Saal) writes:
>it is unabridged, unedited and fully inflammatory.  Anti-semitism
>does not begin when they are trying to kill you.
	I don't usually read this group, so I'm ignorant of
any discussions you have had on this topic, but surely a
definition of anti-semitism must include an *intention* on the part
of the alleged anti-semite to advocate, foster, or practise
discrimination on the basis of race.  And surely, any
accusation of anti-semitism must establish this intention to
be valid.  
	Further, since this kind of accusation can be very
damaging in a personal, as well as professional, sense, it
is my belief that no such accusation should be made without
sufficient evidence of these intentions.  As it happens,
Monica is not anti-semitic in the slightest, as anyone who
knows her will agree.  Also, as it happens, she was in fact
quoting someone else.  In fact, the first sentence of her
article ("I find your lack of faith disturbing.") is Darth
Vader's line in Star Wars- and her keywords line was taken
from the Bloom County "spelling bee" cartoon.
	Admittedly, Samuel wouldn't have known any of this,
since he didn't ask Monica about her beliefs before he accused
her of anti-semitism.  Since his was a public accusation, I
believe that he should have thought more carefully about the
evidence on which he based his outrageous claim.  If you read
the sentence in question carefully, I think you will find that
it only implies that the poster of the cheeses song would face
similar flames if he had posted some silly "ditty"  playing on
some pun, in net.r.j.  This statement, even taken alone + out
of context, does not seem inflammatory to me.  
	I hope that such accusations will be made more
carefully in the future.


-- 
				chris lydgate
				c/o the information vortex
				!tektronix!reed!lydgate