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\twelvepointconcreteroman
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\footline={\hfill\twelvepointsanserif\folio\hfill 21 July 92}

Teg --

\dropcap{O}h boy you're not gonna like this -- you have finally done
it. {\it You} have dragged me across a line that {\it I} do not wish
to cross. Regarding BOS\#6. Specifically kid's sexuality. More
specifically, erotica with a boy-child in it. The problem is not the
linear one. Don't jump to conclusions. 

Let me analogize the point before I illustrate it.

If we were monkeys living in the trees, confined to the trees because
dangerous large cats will eat us down there in the plains, you can
scream your bloody head off that yes, we have the right to be down in
the plains as they do. I will agree with you, as I do now. However,
the fact remains -- in the current environment -- if I go down there I
will be killed.

You have thrown me, and others, out of the tree, without asking me if
I want in on this battle. I don't. The righteousness of your battle is
not cause enough to drag others in with you unwittingly. 

Consent, Teg! You have involved me, and anyone else you correspond
with that receives your zine, in high-profile not-legal stuff. The
bottom line is -- I'm now far more likely to have the police show up
at my door, or add me to another list I don't want to be on. {\it I
will choose} what I become involved in. 


\bigskip
\dropcap{H}ere I am going to be a bit unpleasant. This is criticism of
your process. I genuinely like you, and admire you. I follow BOS and
therefore your thought processes (to some degree) and generally admire
the path you are following. 

Remember in another letter I outlined Don Juan's barriers in the path
of a Warrior? {\it FEAR}, the mind-killer, nearly every human on the
planet keeping themselves ``in their place'', in closets of all kinds.
The relatively few that overcome fear do so only in limited areas,
such as the sexual coming out of the closet, and never extrapolate
that process to larger life. Some few realize that instead of
``overcoming'' fear, that it is just another wall, a curtain, that is
ever present and must be gone through over and over. These few pass
through one trap, only to fall into another even more insidious if
less populated.

The next trap is what Don Juan called {\it power} itself. While that
makes poetic sense, I am embarrassed to say only recently I realized,
in our Western world, this means {\it RIGHTEOUSNESS}. Logic that says,
because I do in fact wield this power, my actions and decisions are
correct. My plan has a totality of connectedness. Because my idea is
good, I can do no wrong, and people who object are standing in my way,
and I will push them aside.

\bigskip
\dropcap{T}aking other people into account means being self-effacing,
Teg. It means you sometimes have to back off, even when it feels
wrong, even when you know you are right, because others have equally
strong thought-systems in {\it their} heads. Even if they are wrong
ones, they are valid {\it because they think them}. It means not
correcting every wrong impression. Not insisting on being right all
the time!

Further, even if some persons thoughts and actions are fucked today,
doesn't mean they are not on some path you cannot even recognize. Or
even suspect the existence of. You admire me, but if the Teg of July
1992 met the Tom Jennings of even 1985, chances are you would not have
liked the apolitical technical person I was. 

My advice (worth what you've paid for it) -- do the good things you
see and desire to have happen, and ignore or work around the bad
things and people. Because people are not static objects. Making
enemies is a bad sign, Teg, not a good one. Any fool can make enemies.

\bigskip
\dropcap{Y}eah, I'm angry at you, but you are still welcome to visit
and crash in my house. Nothing else has changed. I'm writing this the
day after I talked to you on the phone; if these thoughts were fully
formed then I would have brought them up (just in case you were
wondering why I didn't). 

I do look forward to hanging out with you when you get to San
Francisco. I don't hold grudges. And if you can somehow convince me
that BOS\#6 won't hurt me, I'll change my mind.

\bigskip
\line{\hfill Tom Jennings}
\line{\hfill P.O. Box 77731}
\line{\hfill San Fagsicko}
\line{\hfill CA 94107 USA}

\bigskip
\dropcap{PS:} There's no way this will sound right. You'll just have
to believe me, that it is not a symbolic act, but a physical one to
hopefully save my mortal ass: if you have a BOS mailing list, I'd like
you to remove my name from it. I believe that strongly that you'll get
busted. As a matter of fact, if I was you I'd consider destroying it
outright or at least putting it somewhere very safe, which means not
in your house.

Someone I know had all of his property seized by the cops because, it
turns out, he was corresponding with someone who, the Feds claimed,
was ``suspected'' of trafficking in ``child porn''. No charges filed.
Never got any property back. This person is a gay man, quite out, even
when he worked on a very famous massively-secret project during WWII. 

Shit happens, Teg. You are casting spells that will invoke demons you
think you know, but do not. Danger!


\bye