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Issue No. 181 | 06 June 2003 |
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National Leadership
History: Nest of Traitors Interview: A Nation of Hope Unions: National Focus Safety: The Shocking Truth Tribute: A Comrade Departed History: Working Bees Education: The Big Picture International: Static Labour Economics: Budget And Fudge It Technology: Google and Campaigning Review: Secretary With A Difference Poetry: The Minimale Satire: Howard Calls for Senate to be Replaced by Clap-O-Meter
Politics The Soapbox Media The Locker Room
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Letters to the Editor More Bad Language
Dear Editor Please allow me to reply to the person signing him/herself as "Te Kooti" in issue 180, who made a vicious personal attack on me, simply because I dared to object to reading profanities. If Te Kooti's letter was intended as a joke, it is a very weak and unfunny one. If meant seriously, it is the most twisted, far-fetched and paranoid "reasoning" I have ever seen. Apparently my polite request to avoid reading profanities makes me a violent racist! I am still trying to work out how I am guilty of "blackmail" (extorting money by threatening to reveal a secret). It is Te Kooti who is the racist, condemning and abusing me on the basis of his/her totally ignorant assumptions about my race and ancestry. It is Te Kooti who uses language as "a weapon to self-righteously intimidate", using words which I guess 99% of your readers do not understand. Te Kooti joins other racists who claim a totally unfettered "right to freedom of expression" to justify racial vilification and other evils. I apologise to anyone who used profanity in Workers Online simply because s/he was denied an education. But it is far more likely that they pepper their articles with four-letter words in the mistaken belief that it makes them sound "working-class". Not that it is anyone's business what my background is, but for Te Kooti's information, my ancestors are working class, what s/he calls "riff raff", but did not use profanity. Nor did working class heroes like Chifley and Curtin and many others who educated themselves despite great hardship. Certainly neither I, nor as far as I know any of my ancestors, ever dispossessed anyone of their land, language or self-esteem or prevented anyone being educated. On the contrary, my parents struggled for aboriginal rights long before it became fashionable. If my mother, the daughter of a cleaner and a wharfie (who was forced to hump his bluey around the country when he was summarily sacked with no reason, no severance pay and no dole), should meet any of these chardonnay socialists who think profanity makes them working class, she would wash their mouths out with soap. I showed Te Kooti's letter to a Maori friend of mine, and she said Te Kooti is "porangi" (crazy). I suggest Te Kooti stops using twisted logic in order to invent and abuse imaginary enemies, and help me in the real world struggle to involve more women in the labour movement. Women (and many men) ARE repelled by profane language, not because they "have a satisfying life", but because other men use it intimidate them with its suggestion of violence, and to convey a fake "working class" blokeyness. P Kennedy
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