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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Soviet and American Human Rights:re to Yoshi
Message-ID: <1007@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Feb-86 09:14:52 EST
Article-I.D.: whuxl.1007
Posted: Fri Feb 21 09:14:52 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Feb-86 03:56:56 EST
References: <1691@bbncca.ARPA> <536@whuts.UUCP> <1636@ihlpg.UUCP> <540@whuts.UUCP> <1641@ihlpg.UUCP> <552@whuts.UUCP> <1131@ihlpa.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Whippany
Lines: 43

> >From:        tim sevener  whuxn!orb
> >                                      At the same time, one must recognize
> > that Stalin has been dead for 30 years now.  The instruments of repression
> > in the Soviet Union no longer include the wholesale slaughter of Stalinism.
> > Instead they include summary arrest, the use of mental hospitals and
> > generalized censorship.  They also include restrictions on people's
> > rights to distribute literature in public places.
> 
> I think that Tim failed to discuss one of the most serious civil
> right violation in the USSR.  The USSR severely restricts the
> right of its people to emigrate.  If you don't like the US,
> you can leave the country.  There are many oppressive governments
> on this planet.  Yet, when it comes to emigration, the USSR and 
> its satellite nations are at the top of the list.  Basically,
> the USSR can be viewed as a giant prison camp for its people.
> -- 
> Yosi Hoshen, AT&T Bell Laboratories
> Naperville, Illinois,  Mail: ihnp4!ihlpa!jho

You have a valid point, although I think it is not true that the
USSR can be viewed as simply a giant prison camp for its people.
I support the right of all Soviets to freely emigrate, if they wish.
Perhaps (??) the release of Shcharansky indicates a future opening of
Soviet emigration policy.  But there has been no evidence of that as yet.
But again, let me point out that my point was hardly to *condone* Soviet
human rights abuses of all sorts - my point was that if we do not
watch out we will wind up with a similar situation in our own country.
Distibuting literature at shopping malls has been treated as a "trivial"
problem.  But I do not think it is when also considered in conjunction
with the blatant censorship of the press during Grenada, in conjunction
with forced lie detector tests in the highest levels of government,
in conjunction with FCC policies which threaten to allow media monopolies
throughout the country, in conjunction with attempts to make all government
employees take an oath that they would *never* reveal what they had
learned in office, even after leaving office.
Another very real threat is the enormous increase in research and development
spending for the military on classified projects which Star Wars threatens
to increase to even larger proportions.  As part of this militarization
of research more and more restrictions are being placed upon rights to
publish and basic academic freedoms.
The point is to *avoid* becoming another Soviet Union, not to
"defend ourselves" by simply becoming like the Soviet Union ourselves.
        tim sevener   whuxn!orb