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From: scott@cstvax.UUCP (Scott Larnach)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.followup
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle Children's Fund
Message-ID: <68@cstvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Feb-86 14:34:21 EST
Article-I.D.: cstvax.68
Posted: Fri Feb 28 14:34:21 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Mar-86 01:21:14 EST
References: <221@hadron.UUCP> <325@lifia.UUCP> <505@eneevax.UUCP>
Reply-To: scott@cstvax.UUCP (Scott Larnach)
Organization: Unix Support, Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre
Lines: 38
Xref: watmath net.columbia:2555 net.followup:5776


In <267@hadron.UUCP> jsdy@hadron.UUCP says :-
> ... I don't think there's anything we mortals
> do that always works, eh?  That's why we've all got different ways
> of trying things: because your ways work better than ours -- some-
> times -- and our ways work better than yours -- sometimes.

I heartily applaud *somebody* in this discussion who isn't being
totally chauvinistic. If you could take the best of Europe, and
the best of America, and get them to work together without trying
to knife each other in the back all the time, what a team we would
have!

Most Americans and most Europeans, I think, believe in essentially the
same things -- freedom of expression and action within the law being
the most important. The source of the tensions between us is not the
people, it's the _Governments_.

We criticise American social policy. Indeed I think it leaves a lot to
be desired. But I certainly wouldn't shout about ours (Britain's).
We did feel it necessary to have Band Aid, didn't we? We have many
charities to look after the aged, the disabled, the homeless, and so
on, funded by private subscription, because *our* social policy doesn't
do the job.

You can't always draw conclusions about the populace from Governmental
policy. I could easily say that American politicians can _buy_ success in
American politics. But then in this country we do it either by rigging the
electoral boundaries (our obsolete system) or by having a war. Our 
government, after all, was elected by a *minority* of the voting
population. Does this make our system better than the USA's?

Summary: flame the politicians by all means, they are paid to take it,
	 but keep an open mind about the people.
-- 
Scott Larnach			Janet: scott@uk.ac.ed.cstvax
Edinburgh Unix Support		Arpa:  scott@cstvax.ed.ac.uk
Tel:	+44 31 667 1081 x2629	Uucp:  scott@cstvax.uucp