X-Message-Number: 4061
Date: 21 Mar 95 15:27:33 EST
From: Bob Smart <>
Subject: It never ends!

> Open letter to...Bob (Not So) Smart
 
My, how clever.  It would appear that there's really very little point in my
offering you any further responses, because you've already got all the
answers, and a rapier wit besides.  However, I will give it at least this
one more shot:
 
> It just says how little they know about the situation they are passing
> judgement on.
 
Every scrap of information I have on this debacle is information that came
directly from you, right here on CryoNet.  Did you misquote yourself?
 
> I tried to improve upon everything that was done before.
 
And what a terrific set of improvements it's turned out to be, thus far.
 
>> I am glad that so far, this story has not been widely reported.
> Where have you been the last year?
 
Right here in the heart of metropolitan Los Angeles.  I monitor our news
media constantly, and I haven't seen ANYTHING about you anywhere except
right here on CryoNet.
 
> ...You are not in a jail or a prison, but in a concentration camp!
 
If you think an INS detention center is equivalent to a concentration camp,
then you need to learn more about concentration camps.
 
> As long as one does the best one can in the face of big obstacles, one
> can't really be accused of having botched it.
 
Yes, one can--if one's best is pitifully inadequate, then one should have
had better sense than to get in so far over one's head.  In the real world,
there is no bonus point for "effort."  "Trying" counts for NOTHING.  DOING
is the only thing that ultimately matters.
 
> You have no idea what sacrifices I have gone to to get my grand father
> frozen and to since maintain him...I didn't thrash around causing or
> compounding problems...
 
Whether you've sacrificed to freeze him is utterly irrelevant.  Creating
additional obstacles for yourself by defying and challenging the INS is
EXACTLY thrashing around and compounding problems.
 
> The INS is probably the weakest and most demoralized group of government
> bureaucrats I have come across.
 
And yet they won, and you got deported.  And yet you've been engaged in
legal battles with them for 8 years.  If they're such bunglers and fools,
then why couldn't you attend last May's city election?  If they're so weak,
why even bother to fight them?
 
> What is thorazine?
 
After that long-winded, rambling, and irrelevant tirade about how much you
know about psychiatry because of your grandfather, you need to ask what
thorazine is?
 
> Civil disobedience has a long and proud history in the US.
 
It certainly does.  However, anyone who chooses to engage in it must be
aware that the source of its power is that the people who practice it accept
the consequences of their actions.  Civil disobedience doesn't work if you
antagonize the officials and then snivel about it when the inevitable
punishment comes; it loses all of its moral force that way.  "Civil
disobedience" does not mean "breaking the law and getting away with it."

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4061