I guess the thing I was getting at was this (and I am not paraphrasing Barry Goldwater here): There is no virtue in being interested in only your own civil (or human) rights. If they are yours, then they are mine too, and vice versa. I expect you to be interested in my rights, and I am interested in yours. If everyone just comes out of the woodwork when they are threatened, and stays inside enjoying their sofas when somebody else is threatened, there is no virtue in that. I had an experience similar in principle to steve t's, and I learned a lot from it. People appear to be enlightened because they stick up for themselves only, beoming members of interest groups, marching, demonstrating, etc but they still think SOME other groups are deserving of marginalization or outright bashing. Have you all heard about the gang phenomenon know as the "Straight Edgers"? These are young, mostly white kids who don't drink, smoke, do drugs or have premarital sex, and they are literally willing to kill anybody who does. What's the principle there, I wonder if they think about it. I, being a male, apparently white, and from the south, am assumed to be a racist. People tell me jokes I don't like. I am accused of it many times when I speak against rap, as I did above. This is not "reverse" discrimination or chauvinism. There is only one kind.

Chet W.