levasseur@morgan.DEC (Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027) (08/27/85)
Regarding Jeff Stoner's observation about the rags at the checkout counter:
<BTW Jeff....this is not a flame at you at all>
Jeff, I also saw the same rags as you did but my feelings were a little
different. The town I live in (Chelsea, MAss) is a lower class working stiff's
town with an average IQ of -27.5. These folks are of the calibre, "if it's in
print, it must be true. There are probably millions of others who will take
the crap that these scandal rags peddle "At face value". Sure we can look at
the outrageous headlines and know that it's so much manure but there will be
those out there who will read it and go off half cocked "Queer Bashing". It
kinda scares me when I see these kinds of headlines, especially with all the
paranoia surrounding the AIDS issue. Last night I was watching the 7:00 news
and they had an item on some school kid who has AIDS. I can just hear multit-
udes of uninformed, conservatives mumbling "These Goddamn queers are respons-
ible".
My new car has an A.M. only radio so I sometimes monitor the Christian
Satellite network of which Boston is part of. Some of these preachers have
said some pretty condemning things to the tune of, "Their blood is upon them"
and "These perverts have jeopardized all of society with their perversion"
These Fundamentalist networks have listenerships in the millions, nationwide
and most think with their emotions and not their heads. Bottom line is that
there's a lot of ignorance being peddled, and it's being swallowed by quite
a few people. Yeah! I believe that the headlines you saw are pretty outrageous;
but remember, the scary part is that there's an equal amount who believe this
crap.
Ray