jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell) (03/11/89)
Should 13-year-olds be allowed to speak at town meetings? In
the Senate? (questions asked by Gus baird -- oh, sorry, that's
gus Baird)
(1) In the Southern Baptist church, members of *whatever* age
have equal rights to vote and to participate in church
discussions. Surely the net can be as tolerant as
Southern Baptists?
(2) I assume Gus -- uh, sorry, gus -- meant the *Federal*
Senate, where the minimum age is 30. But at least one
State House of Representatives that I know of (Florida)
has a minimum age of 18 -- the age at which most under-
graduates start being such. And, of course, the voting
age across The Union is 18, and has been for over a
decade-and-a-half. While there has been no improvement
in the wretches elected since that went into effect,
there's been no big decline either (altho that might
be because you can't get lower than rock-bottom, which
is the place on the scale almost all politicians can be
ranked at, anyway).
In practical terms, I think it's unrealistic to expect all
15,000 of the new users being talked about in this discussion
to post to the same groups, or at the same time, or with
any degree of frequency. Look how few of the subscribers
*now* on actually post.
Para un Tejas Libre,
Jeff Daiell
--
"Why can't they be like *we* were -- perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?"
From "Bye, Bye Birdie"