barry@chatham.uucp (Barry Campbell) (05/04/91)
Tom, I responded to you privately largely because I regarded your question as rhetorical, not for any fear of identification with you or your "cause." For what it's worth, as a law student who's planning to do as much civil rights work as the firm will allow, I *fully* expect to find myself in the position of defending the constitutional freedoms of folks that I might not agree with. I'd work for you, sure. To pick more extreme examples, I'd work to protect the rights of people whose philosophies I regard as genuinely potentially damaging--religious fundamentalists, Marxists, or even card-carrying racists (e.g. KKK or Nation of Islam folk.) Everyone is entitled to a defense... and if we don't protect everyone's rights aggressively, we're setting ourselves up for a screwin' in the long-term. To twist an old Barry Goldwater quote around, liberty defends extremists, and that's no vice. :-) Regards, Barry (not Goldwater... but my old man did name me after him. Long story.) Barry Campbell barry%chatham@duke.cs.duke.edu / UUCP: [...] mcnc!wolves!chatham!barry Chatham Host BBS 919 932 1142 / Chapel Hill, North Carolina ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "Pray for a good harvest, but don't stop hoeing." - Bohemian proverb