Kudos

[John Gear <catalyst -at- PACIFIER -dot- COM>]

No need to apologize for the petition.  Freedom to publish--in whatever
form--is the sine qua non of technical communications.  If technical
communicators don't stand up for intellectual freedom then we will lose
it--and a good share of our livelihood.

And for the rest of you, if you don't think this affects you, wait until
*your* company's product is targeted by the Guardians of Privilege as
contributing to moral decay, etc. etc.  Right now, we see Apple cave in
without a *peep* over a history CD that has not been challenged on its facts
at all.  Bigots in Texas decide which textbooks do and don't get published.
Creationists have succeeded in emasculating science texts.  Technical
communicators in the medical world can tell you whether or not having
certain taboo subjects affects them.

You may think intellectual freedom has nothing to do with you or your
company.  You may *think* you're just writing documentation for a game but
the Guardians *know* that it's occultic and leads to dancin' and drinkin'
and all kinds of goin's on.  Next thing you know, you're out of business.

Any person who does or wants to make a living in technical communications
should keep the history of Galileo firmly in mind.  He was *not*, as the pop
history has it, punished for his hypotheses--the church leadership already
accepted the Copernican explanation as true.  Galileo was punished and
threatened with excommunication and torture for *PUBLISHING* his results
where the unwashed masses could see them--in other words, for disseminating
the idea on the internet of the times.

I *thank you* for the petition.

(Assuming you're not getting paid that is.  ;^)
Joke!  Joke!)

John Gear (catalyst -at- pacifier -dot- com)
"Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of
selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless." -- Sinclair Lewis