Bill Kennedy <bill@ssbn.wlk.com> (06/26/91)
Patrick, I wanted to let this sit until the temperature got back to
normal but I might be able to capture the attention of the rational
people with this. It's short and to the point.
There have been a lot of pyrotechnics in this and other groups about
the Len Rose situation. I started a vigorous exchange of articles
with my dcom.telcom contribution late last week. Let me clarify a
couple of points, maybe it will comb down some hackles.
My remarks about Len's role in the Steve Jackson Games raid were
bogus, unfortunate, and spoken from ignorance. They were a violation
of my own rule, i.e. don't mix what you know to be true with what you
believe to be true. What a dummy to lead off with what I believed to
be true followed by what I know to be true. I'm being barbequed for
it, I did it, I was wrong.
In such an emotionally charged issue as this it's easy to become
confused about what one is and is not angry or upset about. After
some off-line discussions with people who feel as strongly (and
differently) as I do about this, let me share what we could agree on;
me with them, them with me. Please don't try to mix one point with
the other, they are mutually exclusive and everyone might not agree
with one, the other or both. I do think that it's a fair summary:
1) Ignoring any legal, criminal, or civil rights implications, Len
Rose did some things that resulted in people being hurt. Some people
think that he isn't a nice person.
2) Ignoring whether or not anyone thinks that Len Rose is a nice
person or believes that he did anything that resulted in people being
hurt, he was trampled, roughshod, by federal agencies and their
employees, and his civil rights were probably violated.
Please look at those two issues separately and don't try to mix the
immiscible. Some of us believe one, others believe the other, as long
as they are kept separate, I believe both. My dcom.telcom contribution
(aside from the SJG gaffe) intended to say #1, but a lot of people got
it mixed with #2. The mixture is explosive.
Bill Kennedy internet bill@ssbn.WLK.COM or ssbn!bill@attmail.COM
uucp {att,cs.utexas.edu,pyramid!daver}!ssbn.wlk.com!bill