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 .   .   .   .  .   .  .   .  .   .            "Sticks and Stones"
 .   .   .   .  .   .  .   .  .   .
  . . .  .   .   . . .  . . .  . . .                 by TimR


  . . w w w . a n a d a . n e t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

        I remember High School.  Okay, I try not to, but what I do remember
 is how many insults I had slung my way.  Whether I was called a hippie fag
 by the jocks because I had friends in choir, or just about every sexually
 oriented swear word I'd ever heard, and a couple I hadn't at that time.  Now
 I managed to do just fine, hell I never let any thing said to me bother me,
 it was just about the only way I survived.  So how come so many people can't
 understand that simple line we all learned as kids?  Sticks and stones may
 break my bones but words will never hurt me.

        Just look around, you see a man discuss an episode of a Seinfeld and
 he gets sued for it because of a joke in the show.  In Iowa City recently,
 racist remarks and threats lead to the arrest of a student, who was black.
 Now, the director of public relations made a joke stating that she was
 surprised that it wasn't a white male between the ages of 25-55 since they
 are responsible for most of the evils of the world.  What happened?  Well,
 the deprived white males decided to make their voice heard, and, gee whiz,
 recently Iowa lost a public relations director.  How stupid is this, over a
 joke, (hell a bad joke that's probably true)?

        We need to try and get people to understand that words can only
 insult if you let them--and there is no good reason to let them.  So maybe
 we can let people know about this, maybe we can start a movement.  Maybe we
 can create a world not consumed by those who know only how to sue when they
 don't hear what they like.

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  .           anada 126                       by TimR  (c)2000 anada e'zine .
      
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