From: kumagic@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Stephen R. Figgins)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: Who cares
Date: 23 Jul 92 12:00:08 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

In article <krikket.5025@meltdown.chi.il.us>, krikket@meltdown.chi.il.us (D. 'krikket' Krick) writes:
> In article <1992Jul21.100930.41773@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>,
> kumagic@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Stephen R. Figgins) writes:
> 
>>But do you in any way support those who do these things?  What is
>>Sun's policy on hiring?  Are there many women in positions other than
>>service there?  Do they use a CFC cleaning agent in manufacturing
>>computers?  Are they open and tolerant of paganism?  Could I work
>>there and wear my pentacle?  How about being openly gay or lesbian?
>>Do they offer spousal benefits to those in same sex marriages?  How
>>are they on maternity leave?  Or do women get stuck in the
>>Mommy-track?  Did they make any campaign contributions to the Bush
>>campaign?  Do they have a day-care program?  
> 
> I've said this before...  Get a grip on reality pal!  "You can't
> change the world in a day.  You got to start with yourself and work
> from the inside out."

I am not sure what reality it is you want me to get a grip on.  And I
am not sure why you call me pal.  I was trying to point out a few of
the injustices maintained by the coorporate world, their employees,
and their consumers.  I wanted to show how such a system is supported.
I do think it is possible to work from within the system.  I
personally would rather not, but times being what they are, I may end
up working from the inside against my will.  I am in need to $$ to
survive.  I can't eat my principles. 

I don't expect the world to change in a day, but it would be nice if
they would change a little, every now and then, without the government
or the courts forcing them to do so.  One way is to let them know, you
think their policies stink.  Refusing to support them financially is
just one way to get this message accross.  Business serves its own
interests, and where it can make a profit at others expense, it will
do so.  Profit is the only thing that really matters to most
companies. 

> (Yeesh, I'm quoting Jello Biafra HERE, but he does make a LOT of
> good points in the song "The Stars and Stripes of Corruption") In
> short, you have to take things one step at a time.  By simply refusing
> to have anything to do with people / companies who aren't "Politically
> Correct" (or whatever word you might use) doesn't help the problem.
> You gotta WORK AT IT FROM THE INSIDE!

You gotta work at it from every side, inside and out.  

"Political Correctness" is used most often by people fighting change.
Sometimes I try to tell someone what is wrong with what they are
doing, and they start screaming "political correctness" and never
listen to what I have to say.  PC is a buzzword.  I have grown
sceptical of those who use it as some sort of defense.

I make many of my purchase decisions based on the actions of
companies.  If I find out one company is more progressive than
another, I support them.  If a company has a bad record with the
environment, women's issues, minority issues, I try to have as little
to do with it as possible, I won't by their products, I won't work for
them.   

As for people, well I havent given up on you yet.  

> A nice thought.  But it would also be nice if there was a 24 hour
> period without war, famine, desiese, etc...  I can't be held
> responsibly for every other male entity on this planet.  Nor can
> anyone else.  Just as any one female can't answer for every other
> female on this planet when one of those females breaks a law, or...
> You get the picture.

I am not holding you responsible.  I am not holding anyone
in particular responsible.  I am recognizing responsibility.  We play
a part in the system.  We are connected by thousands of little threads
to each other.  Collectively we create soceity, and the soceity we
create, grooms men to be violent, criminals, rapists, racists, wife
beaters, child molestors.  These are the extremes, but they are all
too common.  Most of us don't get it quite so bad, maybe we are just a
little violent, maybe we interrupt women a bit more than men, maybe we
think women aren't quite as smart, whatever.  

Recognizing the threads of responsibility that connect us to this
behavior, allows us to change, to bend, to shape ourselves into
something else.  It allows us to reverse the programming.  And it can
show us ways to alter the soceity that groomed us to be scum. 

Now, do you get the picture?  Our responsibility is our key to change,
both ourselves and the system.  

> Then don't be silent.  Work at it one step at a time.  Rome wasn't
> built (or destroyed) in a day...

Do you find me to be silent?  Rome wasn't built in a day, and
apparently neither were the men of alt.pagan.
 
-- 
___________________________________________________________________________

Stephen R. Figgins           |  There was an old woman
kumagic@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu   |  Who lived under the hill 
PO Box 1244                  |  And if she's not gone 
Lawrence, KS 66044	     |  She lives there still
___________________________________________________________________________