Silverfoxesclub-digest
Thursday, December 7 2000
Volume 01 : Number 068

In this issue:

-Re: Many, many questions! (+ responses)
-Church defies Lutheran order
-Somebody left the list

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Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 00:57:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Robert Feinstein

Subject: Re: Many, many questions\!

Thank you for mentioning that I am blind, because I don't think the guy who said that anyone who is in full possession of his physical faculties can use a search engine realized it, or at least I hope he didn't, because if he did, he was being very nasty. What people need to understand is that if someone asks for help or a question, even if it seems easy or self-evident, there's usually a good reason.

Bob and Harley Dog
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An addendum from Ben Boxer:
He did not know of your blindness, Bob, and has written contritely to me expressing chagrin that he leapt in without knowing. The information he supplied, however, was useful to those of us who are sighted, and I am grateful for it. My compliments to the gentleman who wrote to the list in your defense, Bob. Rest assured no unkindness was intended. We all know we must tread carefully around you, Bob, because Harley the guide dog may be a sweetie pie, but he's a big son-of-a-bitch none of us wants to tangle with when he gets pissed. GRRRRRRRRROWL!
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Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 02:20:53 -0500
From: "Digital Artistry"

Subject: Re: Many, many questions!

> Thank you for mentioning that I am blind, because I don't think the guy > who said (etc)

Hi Bob,
The gentleman who posted that remark has been around in the various silverfox type communities for a long time now and I know he'd never have written anything nasty just for the sake of being mean. He may be caustic at times but we're all like that now and again. I used to have a friend, his name was Austin, who was blind and used a text to speech system on his computer. Somehow he could understand the contraption but to me it spoke so fast it might as well have been an alien language. I think that by listening to things that quickly he often misunderstood what was being written and took it the wrong way. An example comes to mind. A group of guys I was hanging around with online created an ANSI graphic with all sorts of bright colors and so forth and named it "Austin Vision", which I thought was kind of insulting and rude. Since Austin couldn't see the picture in question he didn't understand half of what was being said and got mad at me for yelling at our friends for doing it. He wound up not wanting to talk to me when in reality I was actually just trying to tell off our friends for acting like immature jerks. But it all comes down to the translation.I think E-Mail is a whole other language unto itself. Certainly it's not the same as spoken English. I think we all tend to speak differently than we type and say things we'd never say in person when we write mail. Not having the benefit of tonal inflections and so forth only serves to complicate things even more. One day perhaps we will all use a text to speech converter to have our E-Mail read to us and it will understand inflections. Those silly smiley faces people type :) could tell the software how to read the line of text before it and so forth. Boy, wouldn't that make things easier? Add in some downloadable voice patterns and people could send you their own so their mail would always sound like they do in person. I think the technology is already in existence for just such a thing. What do you think?

Regards,
Mike
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Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 06:28:32 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Church defies Lutheran order

Ben Boxer says: Within the context of Lutheran canon law, the incident reported below constitutes an act of civil disobedience on the part of a courageous congregation. Bravo! The day is upon us when reasonable and fair-minded citizens must set out themselves to correct egregious rulings by so-called authorities. Maybe next we will read about a large Boy Scout troop inviting gay boys and gay scoutmasters into fellowship with them in defiance of BSA national policy. Perhaps an American cardinal will denounce the present pope's homophobia and publicly throw open the doors of his cathedral to homosexuals. We may even read of students at a large high school in the South organizing a vigilante group of straight kids, led by the captain of the football team, to patrol the halls and protect gay students from bashing.

Ha ha! Dream on, baby!

Headline:
Church to defy Lutheran order by ordaining noncelibate lesbian pastor
(The Advocate, 12/06/00)

Text:
The congregation at the St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn., voted 1760 Sunday to ordain a lesbian pastor, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. The decision to ordain Anita Hill, who has served as a minister at the church since 1983, is a violation of a long-standing Evangelical Lutheran Church law banning the ordination of noncelibate gay or lesbian pastors. Our process leading to todays decision has been thoughtful and intentional," said church copresident John Whalen in a statement. The path weve taken is consistent with our understanding of what it means to be Lutheran and our commitment to inclusive ministry.
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Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2000 06:28:17 -0800
From: "Ben Boxer"

Subject: Somebody left the list

Some guy left this list today of his own accord. What pissed him off about it was that he ONLY wanted to see pix of smooth-faced silverfoxes. He didn't want to see pix of any other ages or types. He didn't want to read any articles or comments by anyone. Etcetera.

I was not sorry that he left. That kind of narrow-mindedness does not belong on a Ben Boxer list. It's OK to make your choices, but it's not OK to get pissy because your buddies may think differently.

This list is for men of all ages who think in many different directions. We have one major bond: we comprise a maligned minority throughout the world. That is enemy enough. Among ourselves, we need to look away from what we don't like about each other and share what we do like together.

Never forget that the DELETE key is a disgruntled subscriber's friendliest recourse.

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End of silverfoxesclub-digest V1 #68
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