From david turgeon Sent Fri, Jun 4th 1999, 16:54
> recently someone named david turgeon (xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx) posted to the list > something about gil gershman. that's all good and well, but the closing of > the letter featured this "FAGgOtS!!!!!!!!!!!". I'm not sure whether this is > a joke, but I, for one, do not find any humour in it. > let me make it simple. I believe that we MUST NOT post anything racist, > sexist or preferentialist to this list. i'll repeat what i said privately to someone else with a similar concern: the "faggots" thing was a spoof of our good friend & listmember hk! who said something similar (though as of now i have no idea if that was humor or not.) trust me, i believe racism, sexism, homophobia & intolerance in general to be despicable attitudes coming from a flawed reasoning, & i won't accept any justification for it. but to jump everytime you hear say "faggot" or "nigger" without figuring out the context brings the other problem: by making these words taboo, we are giving them the property of being even more insulting. but of course that's just me. i'll try to refrain from using one of these words in the future without adding at least a paragraph to explain the context. -- david turgeon at http://www.notype.com