From: cah@pavonis.JPL.NASA.gov (Allen Halsell)
Subject: Re: Perot's Vote Percentage State-by-State
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA/Caltech
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 17:51:18 GMT

> In article <BxH97D.F5v@access.digex.com> wbrown@access.digex.com (William Brown) writes:
> >In article <1992Nov9.200425.27768@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> cah@tyr.JPL.NASA.gov
> >(Allen Halsell) writes: 
> >
> >>> By the way, If all these African-Americans don't work for the government
> >>> (as the deleted part of Mr Frank's post implies), who do they work for?
> >>
> >>Mostly they don't work.  Or is cleaning toilets considered to be a plum
> >>government job?
> >
> >    It never ceases to amaze me how bigoted people can be, regardless of
> >their jobs or responsibilities.  Even today, people like Mr. Halsell find
> >it necessary to try to belittle others through humor that was never funny
> >to begin with.  It's even more odd that anyone (including myself) would
> >expect any level of humanity or decency from say, a NASA government
> >official.  This country seems to have almost encouraged a type of
> >immaturity in some segements of the adult population that encourages a
> >lack of respect.  Mr. Halsell, to say that your joke is in poor taste is
> >an understatement.  To say that you didn't know that is probably a lie. 
> >And to say that you probably didn't care points more to your selfishness
> >than to a poor sense of humor.  I sincerely hope you just didn't know how
> >poor your so-called joke was - I would hate to think anyone could be that
> >randomly bad-mannered.

I was "out of the loop" for a few days, and it looks like my statements
have been taken out of context.  Let me try again.

The context was "look why DC voted Democratic: they all work for
Congress and the government!"  Whoever started this thread was
showing a near-total lack of knowledge about the conditions in
Washington D.C.  Most people who work for Congress, the Administration,
or the national bureaucracy don't live in D.C.

D.C. is a national disgrace, closer to a reservation than a district.
It's torn apart by unemployment and crime, yet has no federal
representation.  If the residents were white and middle-class, this
would be changed.  But as it is, the only "government perks" that
the people who live in our national capitol get are the low-level
jobs that aren't partisan: data entry, telephone answering, maintenance
and yes, toilet cleaning.  They don't get copies of the "Plum Book"
showing which positions are open with the new administration; in fact
they'll be the first to go when government "waste" is cut.

When I said, "mostly they don't work," I was echoing my memory that
unemployment is over 50% in D.C.  I was NOT being racist.  It's
not racist to point out that some people get the shaft more often
than others.

BTW, I'm not a "NASA official."  I work for CalTech, under contract
to NASA, on the Navigation Team for the Mars Observer Project.
So I'd better add, "these opinions are my own and do not represent
the opinions of the California Institute of Technology, the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, or NASA."

If you read this I'd like a response, since you mis-quoted me so
thoroughly.

*********************************************************************
the only thing that speaks the truth is the eloquence of passing time
               the spoken word is a jacket too tight
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