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From: tw8023@pyuxii.UUCP (T Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.legal,net.misc
Subject: Re: Autodialing Falwell - a different perspective
Message-ID: <308@pyuxii.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 21-Jan-86 08:05:16 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxii.308
Posted: Tue Jan 21 08:05:16 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Jan-86 20:08:53 EST
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Xref: watmath net.religion:8973 net.legal:2763 net.misc:9174

Perhaps Mr Pope needs some lessons concerning "civil disobedience"
in this country.  What is refered to here is an act against
a government, not a private entity.  Civil disobedience is an
act performed to change a situation which only affects a
part of the population.  Example: Civil diobedience should
be used to correct or change those laws which prohibit only
a portion of a population from enjoying their freedoms.
In dialing the Falwell number with an autodialer, a person
is acting against an individual.  There are laws to protect
that individual from being harassed.  Those laws protect
everyone in the same manner.  Thus, this action is not an
act of civil disobedience, it is plain and simple, harassement.
I am sure that Mr Pope would scream to high heaven if some
Falwellian should pull the same trick on him.  There is
a difference between civil disobedience and harrasement and
the courts of this country have gone to great lengths to
define the differences over the last 20 years.
T. C. Wheeler