From: smorine@nyx.cs.du.edu (Suzanne Morine)
Subject: Re: Denver Post/News 4 CO:2 Poll
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
Distribution: soc
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 21:58:40 GMT

kpm@druhi.ATT.COM (Kevin Malloy (DoD #106)) writes:

>Here's the results of a recent Denver Post/News 4 (KCNC Denver) poll 
>conducted after the November Election.  These results were published
>in today's (2 Jan 93) Denver Post, Page 1A (above the fold).  Reproduced
>without permission. 

>[poll deleted, Denver Post text:]
>When interpreting the results of this poll, polls immediately before the
>election showed #2 being defeated 54-40% (6% undecided).  Now, 48% say
>they voted "yes", 46% say they voted "no", and 6% refused to answer.
>[end of Post extract]

I guess they're saying we can actually *believe* what this poll says!
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

>I believe this survey shows how tolerant Coloradans are, something I knew
>all along.  It reinforces the theory that Coloradans by and large voted out
>of misunderstanding, not hatred.  (Well, some, maybe 20%, voted out of
>hatred.)  Somehow, CFV was able to make people believe that if they voted
>"no" on #2, gays and lesbians would get "special rights", defined by some
>as quota preferences and the like, and they voted "yes" to stop this.

They also talked about, oh, you have protection under the gender clauses,
so, if you're fired for being gay, you can lie and say you were fired
for being fe/male and get protection that way - so very ethical of them.
And that the 14th amendment protects everyone anyway, so we don't need
these discrimination laws.  And then there was the guy on co.politics who -
*after* the election - just out and said he believed people should be able
to discriminate along any lines they chose, be it sexual orientation, race,
gender, appearance.

"Did Coloradans vote 'yes' out of ignorance or bigotry?" seems to be so
much on people's minds.  I've decided that neither is a complement and
bigotry is a subset of ignorance.

>[...]
>It is clear to me that to turn this around, we've got to counter the
>"special rights" lie that CFV and their nationwide counterparts have
>spread.  How?  A long, slow process of education, I suppose.

I have to agree (in hindsight) with the point that the CFV literature
(read: smokescreen) has to be countered point for point, as well as
education on the actual issue at hand.

(btw, I actually read an article in a local religious "news"paper that was
talking about the effort to repeal #2, and it said that gay people are
three times more likely than straights to deliberately infect someone
with AIDS.  Left me thinking: how many straights would do that: 1 in 10,000?
In that case, the gay figure would be 3 in 10,000.  Of course, the article
didn't specify the figure.  They just used the "three times as many" idea
to imply that gay people are dangerous and sick.  So unlike *liars*.)

In college, I noticed a tendency for native-born Coloradans to believe
anything imbued with religion.  Hit 'n' if you don't want to read the
illustrative story (this ends the post):

A heavily re-xeroxed piece of paper got circulated at a church in Canon City
that said the Proctor and Gamble company was satanic and you shouldn't buy
their products.  The "proof" was the "witchcraft" symbol on the backs
of the products and a story of the head honchos of the co. appearing on
'Donahue,' talking candidly about their being satanic.  One of my college
roomates from Canon City brought the leaflet back to school.  Out of a group
of four people who grew up, like her, in small towns in CO, three believed
it completely and the fourth didn't push the issue (just saying "I should 
call their 1-800 number and ask: 'Is Secret satatic?'" - oh, now I remember
she grew up in CA...).  They looked at me as a non-believer for arguing
that it was bullshit.  The next year, it all came out that, of course, it
was all lies, that, no, the symbol wasn't some hex, no, the company is not
satanic, no, the execs of the company never were even on 'Donahue,' and
that the lies were widespread enough to be hurting P&G's business
considerably (the information was on the airwaves).  My roomates'
reactions were like, "Oh, well, it could have been true after all."

--
--Suzanne Morine          smorine@nyx.cs.du.edu
--"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil.  If
--they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men,
--the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui."     Helen Keller
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