From: "George A. Gleason" <gg@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 93 00:07:58 PDT
To: smb@research.att.com
Subject: Re: Remailers/PayPhones and Today's NYT
Message-ID: <93Jul25.003746pdt.14039-1@well.sf.ca.us>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Credit card fraud happens almost everywhere.  Drawing a circle around a
neighborhood and zapping it is what's known as redlining, and when the
neighborhood is defined by its racial composition, it's bigotry and
discrimination.  And did you read Hugh's posting about the 7pm to 8am coin
curfew in Czechago?  They *allow* credit card calls after those hours, so
the credit card fraud issue is at best a red herring.

Wake up, how much evidence do you need that it's a simple matter of bigotry
and classism?  This stuff is real.  The bottom line is, in the information
age, access is power; hence the continuing little maneuvers to dis-access
the disenfranchised.  Too much access, like too much democracy, makes some
people very nervous.  Think about it, stop engaging in denial.  If what
we're fighting for makes any difference at the bottom level of the
grassroots, it's the right to drop a quarter in the slot and make a call
without having one's name in a consumer database.  That's basic privacy and
anonymity for you.  And it's all that a whole lot of people can afford.  

-gg