From: STella@thelema.uucp (STella)
Subject: Re: Violence against us.
Organization: Idiosyncratic Anarchic Order
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 09:14:26 GMT

In article <2059@uswnvg.UUCP> dfpedro@nv2.uswnvg.com (Donn F. Pedro) writes:
>In article <9Bi7HB5w164w@penn.Gwinnett.COM> bfbear@penn.Gwinnett.COM (Penn Collins) writes:
>>IO81409@MAINE.MAINE.EDU (Ailsa N.T. Murphy) writes:
>>> we need more pink panthers.  if there were any in bangor, i would
>>> volunteer.  and i am going to buy a gun when i get a job.  queers
>>> bash back!  or, in some cases, shoot back...  (i am too fat, slow,
>>> and weak to fight a bunch of drunk asshole adolescents, but i am
>>> a very good shot...)

I'd venture a guess that I'm as fat and slow.  And that, having legs
that carry you around, you're stronger than you think, too.

>>-just had to ask, is fighting violence WITH violence the answer?

Depends.  Do you want to end violence?  Or would you rather sit on
some moral pedestal and get bashed?

>If you want to survive.  A dead pacifist is a useless thing.
>A short statement only made once.

And laughed at in hir blood by those who put the period to hir
statement.

>A prepared pacifist, one willing and able to fight if need be,
>makes a statement every time they act.

Or even, sometimes, show willingness to act.

>Warriors don't exist just to decimate populations under the 
>'leadership' of countries.

Thanks, Donn.  But right now I remember one of the times I've been
angriest in the last few years, the only time I can recall where I
felt like doing a wee bit of bashing on another queer my ownself.

I was hanging on Haight Street between sets, trying to decide whether
to bother going back in for the next band, or to go pee, then sit in
the car crocheting till wjr was ready to leave.  I hear a disturbance.
I look.  Three drunken skinheads (please, Jeff, I know there are
non-Nazi, non-phobic skins, but these weren't them) were standing
around a young, frail, femme little lad in latex and other cultural
icons.  My street-reading skills say "bashing in progress".  I start
ambling closer, cane in hand, say "how you doing?" to the kid, and the
three wander off for a moment.  He asks me if they messed him up, and
I look him over, admit he might have a fat lip the next day, verify
that while his hair's been pulled his scalp isn't bleeding visibly,
etc.  Then they come back and spit on him as they pass.

I clout one of them, the first spitter, a fair one with my cane, and
holler something hostile.  After a little face-to-face high-volume
discussion, the collecting of a crowd that seemed to think I had
better scripters than the skins did, and the subsequent arrival of
official presence, they leave, the crowd leaves, the cops leave, and
the kid says the thing that put me closer to initiating force than
I've been in years... "I'm really sorry you lowered yourself to their
level."

He stepped back quickly when he saw my body-language start cussing him
out, but I did manage to keep my temper, my cane, and my fists under
control.  I did let my eyes tell him what my fists may not, though.
For all the good it didn't.

I see a very clear difference between being willing to fight to
prevent those who initiate force from benefitting from their
aggression and being wililng to start the use of force.  It's
difficult, when the imaginary entities we call governments go at it,
to tell which initiated, which responded.  But in cases like that on
the street, where it's clear, I have to struggle to avoid contempt for
those who are unwilling to fight for their safety, especially when
they don't bother mentioning this till the incident is over.

But I wasn't volunteering for a brawl to save one weedy little
pacifist, but to keep bashing from being seen as acceptable, so I
guess it was more OK than not....

STella@xanadu.com	1016 E. El Camino Real, #302, Sunnyvale, CA 94087

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