From: ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu (Patrick A. Townson)
Subject: Re: This Time Around, DON'T VOTE !!
Organization: EECS Department, Northwestern University
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 06:33:49 GMT

In article <2766@uswnvg.uswnvg.com> dfpedro@nv2.uswnvg.com (Donn F.
Pedro) writes:

> It sounded like a call to encourage the collapse of the current corrupted
> government and allow revolution to occur?

> Am I that far off Partick?

No, you are not that far off at all. There is nothing more that can be
done with the present system except apply more patches and bandaids. I
have in the past forty years seen Chicago go completely down the tubes
and the entire USA is not far behind.  I do not really like the term
'revolution', however.  That to me implies an active role in the
collapse which will occur.   

>> If things are that bad why bother to even get out of bed in the
>> morning,

Believe me, it is getting harder and harder. Around here it is very
easy to lose respect even for one's self. For the past two years I
have dreamed daily of eventually having enough money to leave here and
start a new life entirely somewhere else. 

> To organize the revolution, that's why.  

I am not an organizer of revolutions. I am just a very concerned
person about the way things are going downhill rapidly in the USA. So
that (hopefully) I do not get a lot of hate mail based on the above
statement and the alleged 'code phrases' it contains, I will say
emphatically I have very few disagreements with gay people; with women
who seek to control their own bodies; with people of color ... I do
think at times that gay people, feminists and people of color are
failing to see that while they are winning little battles along the
way -- as they rightfully should -- they are losing much larger wars
in the process.  I will say outright that I do NOT know whose fault it
is that we:

  have a badly decayed infrastructure in the USA ...
  a rate of violent crime which is growing expotentially every year ...
  public schools that are the absolute pits in bigger cities ...
  a growing number of homeless people and a bad economic situtation ...
  extremely stupid hypocrites for our leaders ...
  
Two people came here from San Fransisco last spring to visit me. I
gave them the 'Townson Tour' of Chicago ... said tour does NOT include
Sears Tower, the lakefront area or what remains of our downtown ... 

We drove for miles around the west side of Chicago and the south side.
Vacant lots; abandoned burned out buildings; idle people standing
around on the sidewalks; a group of men late at night in the center of
a large vacant lot standing around a trash barrel they had set on fire
to keep warm as they shared a common bottle of wine; it goes on for
mile after mile here ... and from time to time a bunch of high rise
buildings operated by the Housing Authority will stand in a cluster
among them. 

After a few miles, one of my visitors said bluntly, "I am frightened
of this; let's get out of this area ... "

Then he said, "I wish *everyone* in San Fransisco could see this ..."

So do I  ... I wish I could display it here in Usenet ... have you
stand and look at it day after day as I do; look at the way the
government has totally lost control of areas that matter while
continuing to be extremely oppresive in areas that do not matter.

The Michigan Avenue bridge is out of order ... it will be for several
months while extensive repairs are made ... and now a second bridge,
the one on 92nd Street has gone out ...

The Transit Authority is going to abandon miles and miles of the
elevated railway system on the south and west sides of the city rather
than try to find the several million dollars needed to repair or
replace the hundred year old structure ... but when a brave woman two
years ago who was a fare collection agent testified against several
co-workers who were stealing upwards of a million dollars a year in
fares they collected, the Transit Authority management punished HER --
I have reported theiving fare collectors for years myself .. the CTA
does not want to hear of it ... they are frightened by the union which
represents transit workers here.  

The underground flood earlier this year was a precursor of troubles to
come in Chicago. 
     
> Now guess how much my of my tounge is planted in my cheek?

I don't know ... how much?

So let the gay people vote for Clinton and win a couple of hollow
victories if that makes them happy ... 

As for me, I'll just wait until it all falls apart; maybe then I'll be
permitted to help in the rebuilding without being harrassed all the
time. 


PAT


DO NOT VOTE IN NOVEMBER. STARTING THIS YEAR, KEEP YOURSELF AS SEPARATE
AS YOU CAN ... JUST SIT IT OUT ... SOON WE WILL HAVE A CHANCE TO DO
THINGS OVER.