Letter writer should be publicly stoned
October 26, 1995
I, for one, am upset. When I read Mike Anzaldi’s Sept. 24 letter to the editor, I was delighted to find the advice, if anyone is still having trouble with pop e-mail, go see Rob Roy at Wham. This guy’s a real pleasure. However, an article in the Oct. 24 DE states that Rob has filed a complaint against Mike, and it makes me think that some folks may have interpreted Mike’s words as facetious, and now I am outraged.
If it is true that Mike was being sarcastic, do you realize what this means? It means that he has publicly challenged a University authority figure, and we can’t have that! If we don’t nip this little incident in the bud, it is very likely that soon students all over campus will be questioning the status quo and freely using sarcasm. It will be total mayhem!
Also, we must consider the damage done to Mr. Roy’s reputation. For the past twenty years in my home, the name Rob Roy has been synonymous with Friendly and Efficient Information Technology. Well, we all know that computer technologists have always been respected as a class of social elite. For example, think of Nedry in Jurassic Park or those two guys in Wargames that tell Matthew Broderick about backdoors. And we all know that this kind of esteem can never change, but already the damage has been done.
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Somehow Mike’s letter made it onto the Internet, and has been accessed by computers who view it as a sign of weakness among the programmers. Now the computers themselves are getting uppity and my own Gateway told me, Come back after lunch. Ha ha ha! It’s getting out of hand and it’s all Mike’s fault.
In conclusion, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb in saying that if, in fact, Mike Anzaldi was challenging the computo-authorities, and was blatantly using sarcasm in a public forum, he should be subjected to a public stoning. Either that or Rob’s dad could beat up Mike’s dad.
First year medical student
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