From: Mark Rogaski <wendigo@ne-wendigo.jabberwock.org>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 09:23:30 +0800
To: cynthb@sonetis.com
Subject: Re: "Show me an example of terrorists using the Internet or crypto"
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSD/.3.91.971001154053.7185A-100000@mrburns.iosphere.net>
Message-ID: <199710020101.VAA16390@deathstar.jabberwock.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



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An entity claiming to be Cynthia Brown wrote:

: 
: I agree wholeheartedly.  Uncontrolled guns do not solve problems, they 
: create them.  If most households have at least one firearm, it makes it 
: that much easier for a criminal to obtain one by stealing yours while you 
: are at work.

So take your gun to work ;)  Yeah, I know ... that's not the point.


: 
: IMNSHO the best way to fight crime is not with bigger guns than the "bad
: guys", but with better social programs such as universal health care, and
: improved day care so single parents can show their kids what a productive
: lifestyle looks like.  This takes longer than blowing the brains out of some
: teenager that feels his only path to a better life is through crime, and it
: doesn't give the same adrenalin rush.  However, it works at the source of
: crime, and not the consequences. 

I agree, but here's the catch:  once you place the responsibility in the
hands of the gov't, the system comes to a screeching halt.  That which is 
mandated is corrupt, inefficient, and utterly useless.  I'll tell you the 
first step to reducing crime ... get to know your neighbors.  The problem
that we have here in the U.S. is mobile society.  How many Americans know
the people on their street or in their complex?  We have very little 
community left.  A cow-orker of mine lives in the Oranges (near Newark, NJ),
and she doesn't feel fearful when she walks through her complex at night.
The tenants meet at least once a month on a semi-social basis, and so they
know each other.  It makes a big difference.  I don't see most gov't
funded social programs making even that amount of difference.  The change
has to be internal to the community, essentially decentralized.  You can
seed the ideas, but you have to understand that simply improving day care
and health care isn't going to solve the problem, there has to be the
internal process.


Doc


- -- 
[] Mark Rogaski                   "That which does not kill me
[] wendigo@pobox.com                 only makes me stranger."

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