Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!ernie.Berkeley.EDU!jwl
From: jwl@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (James Wilbur Lewis)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Vegetarians in the Workplace
Message-ID: <22303@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 24 Dec 87 01:03:27 GMT
References: <22293@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <17934@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: jwl@ernie.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (James Wilbur Lewis)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 27

In article <17934@bu-cs.BU.EDU> bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein) writes:
>
>Re: your attempt to make a silly parody of religion and the workplace.
>
>I can only assume you are either too young or too limited in
>experience to have worked or gone to school in places where no meat
>was served on Fridays.

You assume incorrectly.  It was a public school, too.  I don't see
how this extrapolates to private corporations;  since the schools
use public funds, they are accountable to the taxpayers.  Apparently
the Catholic population in our area was such that the school board
had to accomodate them.  In a predominantly Jewish community, I would
expect the same concessions to be made for Jewish holidays and customs.

>Sort of ties things up neatly, no? Vegetarians just aren't a powerful
>enough voice in the workplace (yet?)

About as powerful as non-Christians, I'd bet.  And among certain Buddhist
sects, vegetarianism is a religious consideration....how's THAT for tying
things together neatly, eh?  My parody isn't quite as silly as you make
it out to be.  So let's hear it, you folks who claim that Christmas parties
are a form of discrimination:  would YOU abstain from meat in the workplace
to avoid offending a vegetarian Buddhist coworker?

-- Jim Lewis
   U.C. Berkeley