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From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re:  Emily Harris
Message-ID: <825@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Jan-86 03:13:47 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.825
Posted: Thu Jan  9 03:13:47 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jan-86 08:09:19 EST
References: <364@weitek.UUCP>
Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA
Lines: 34

> Well, sorry if a bunch of you got bent out of shape
> at my using the term "folk hero" in the same sentence
> as the name Emily Harris.  But Robin Hood, Ethan Allen, 
> Malcom X and Augusto Sandino had bad PR in their day
> too.  Not that I contend the SLA will ever be looked
> upon in the same light -- they'll probably appear most
> similar to someone like John Brown of Harper's Ferry
> fame.  Like Ken says, it depends on who's folks.
> 
> Mark Thorson  (...!cae780!weitek!mmm)

The SLA murdered Marcus Foster, superintendent of the Oakland School District,
because he wanted to make students carry ID cards.  They kidnaped Patty Hearst,
and beat up Steve Weed badly enough for him to be hospitalized.  They kept Ms.
Hearst in a closet and repeatedly raped her.  They robbed banks and, unlike
the mythical Robin Hood, kept the loot for themselves.

The only thing they did that could be considered remotely constructive in nature
was to force a food giveaway by William Randolph Hearst and some of his rich
buddies.  It was a fiasco, mainly due to disorganization.  I believe that this
disorganization was intentional on the part of the organizers, because they
didn't want the giveaway to succeed.  One can only wonder whether the SLA would
have spent some of its own hard-stolen money on the poor.

The SLA was a band of thugs with pretenses of being revolutionaries.  Mark
Thorson's remarks remind me of a comment a friend made to me in high school.
She told me she stopped reading the Berkeley Barb when it ran a headline
saying, "Free Charles Manson and All Political Prisoners".
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

{amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff
{ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff