Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wisner
From: wisner@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Bill Wisner)
Newsgroups: news.admin
Subject: Re: posting privileges
Message-ID: <988@mailrus.cc.umich.edu>
Date: 10 Mar 89 23:38:13 GMT
References: <7526@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Sender: usenet@mailrus.cc.umich.edu
Reply-To: wisner@mailrus.cc.umich.edu (Bill Wisner)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Amnesia International
Lines: 25

gus Baird:
>I'm disappointed that even a 13-year-old cannot distinguish between
>these cases.  Does Simon expect children to be allowed full free speech
>in town meetings?  In the senate?

I can't speak for Simon but personally, I *do* expect children to be
allowed full free speech if those children have useful, intelligent things
to say.

I could name a few 13-year-olds who could perform better in the Senate
than my state's Senators.

A tangential point: right here on USENET, I met one of the brightest
13-year-olds I have ever known. Her articles were more literate and reasoned
than many that are posted by "professionals".

>Before you trip out on silliness like "patronizing", and so on, just
>how can it be so wicked to suggest that a 13-year-old may not be mature?

This is nonsense. Of course there are some 13-year-olds who are not
mature. There are *many* 13-year-olds who are not mature.

But there are also 31-year-olds who are not mature.

Arbitrarily associating maturity with age is purest stupidity.