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From: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: soc.net-people,misc.headlines,misc.kids,misc.misc,news.misc,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: David's Last Wish
Keywords: hoax hysteria alienation
Message-ID: <1099@actnyc.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 88 11:49:48 GMT
References: <4592@homxc.UUCP> <81765@sun.uucp> <254@shockeye.UUCP>
Reply-To: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Organization: InterACT Corporation
Lines: 23


The more information that comes out about this, the more
interesting it becomes.  Evidently there are several layers
of deception, self- and otherwise; it would probably take
a full-time private detective to get to the bottom of it.

Since the factual basis of both the original story and the
debunkings of it are so hazy, I think we must assume that we
are in the presence of a myth in the making.  I wish the
latest original poster, R. Buttafogo, would answer my query
as to his or her motivations, because we might see something
of the process by which this sort of thing comes about.  But
then, there's the possibility that R. Buttafogo doesn't exist
or someone else was using the ID pseudonomously.

It's evident that there's a great need out there to believe in
this "David" so that cards can be collected and little projects
run off in his name.  Yet in just about every community where
this is taking place, there are real, live sick children who
not only could receive cards but benefit from other, less
remote forms of attention.  Why is unreal "David" so much more 
attractive than these real persons?  Is it _because_of_ his
unreality and remoteness?