wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/19/84)
> Again peer ridicule is exercise of free speech. Ignorant > and unkind as it can be it is part of the exercise of > free speech. Would you have the teachers or their > assistants patrolling the school yard searching for > those ridiculers (?) of their peers and punishing them ? As someone who recalls hours of misery in the schoolyard, being taunted by packs of repulsive and despicable brats, to whom I had made no overtures or initiated any contact with whatsoever, I vote YES! resoundingly. The primary duty of people to each other is to let each other alone. These vermin had not learned that; if it took pain to teach them that lesson, they should suffer that pain in order to learn it. It would have done my psyche a world of good to see these scum flogged for their behavior; the fact that they caused me misery and suffered not at all as a result has probably done quite a bit to my world-view and attitudes. (Sorry for sticking this into net.religion.jewish; since the item being followed up was only posted there, I felt that this had to also go there. Any future followups should probably go to net.religion only.) Will
yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (Yirmiyahu BenDavid) (10/21/84)
I think your follow-up was perfectly appropriate here. I thank you for posting it. In retrospect (and consequent to coaxing from my Jewish peers), it may not have been the best of judgement to employ the kind of ridicule toward Mr. Brown that he sees as so harmless toward others. I'm not sure I agree that it wasn't called for. On the other hand, I'm no more infallible than the next guy and am willing to defer to the consensus of fellow Jews whenever it is reasonable. Certainly, as Jews we wish to be harmless toward others rather than foment harm as has so often been done to us. For this reason I offer my apology to Mr. Brown for the sarcastic use of the phrase 'Rev Bob'. (However, I remain resolutely behind the rest of the article.)