This article is excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal.
Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by
High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co., 
80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain
Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to 
reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained therein
without restriction, so long as articles are not condensed or 
abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the original
author.!

                   The Way it Looks From Here
                    Copyright 1987, R.M.P.J.

                            Junk Mail

     As many of you are aware, someone has been having fun lately
with their spiffy little Xerox(tm) machine and a handful of
stamps.

     Some party or parties unknown, probably from around the
Denver area has been mailing copies of a typewritten letter to
Craft groups public and private, Organizations, Newsletter
Publishers, what have you.  The letters have been (so far) mailed
from Denver, and have been mailed to quite a cross-section of the
country, allegedly from people in the Denver Area Craft
Community.

     The rationale of the author(s?) will probably never be
known; at this point it's not terribly important anyhow.  The
content of the letter seemed to be aimed at maligning and
denigrating one of the country's more well-known Craft groups,
Circle Network.

     As far as the content itself, it seemed to be reasonably
well put together grammatically; the syntax was a bit strange,
though I've penned worse myself many a time.  In general, I was
not impressed with the quality of the copy at all.

     At any rate, the content is not the issue (at least with
me).  What makes this particular piece of correspondence
objectionable is the attempt to avoid (evade?, dodge?, elude?,
escape?) the responsibility.  If he/she/they feel that Circle
Network is in the wrong, why not send the letter to them and have
done?

     Just a note:  How many people are there in the Craft in this
country? How many of us have had at least basic grounding in
developing our psychic abilities?  Do these people think they can
hide from the whole Craft community?  Ye Gods!

     At any rate, this infamous missal started to appear in its
various guises early on in January, and battle (apparently) has
been joined.  R.M.P.J. received a letter from Circle Network,
making us aware of the problem (having received one of the
letters we already were, but hey, ) and offering some "sugges-
tions" on how to proceed.  

     Now I have some quibbles regarding "inalienable" rights,
constitutionally defined or whatever.  I find that I am in
agreement with some things that were said at last year's "Craft
Ethics" panel discussion at Dragon Fest.  We do have rights.  We
have the right to feel and we have the right to choose, and
that's all!  

     I am hereby exercising my right to feel.  I don't like
either the letter `about' Circle, nor the letter from Circle --
both leave me feeling angry and disgusted, and sad that they
(both Circle and the unknown jackasses who wrote that piece of
junk-mail) could so under-estimate the intelligence of their
readers....

     I am also exercising my right to choose.  As an editor of
the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal, I deeply resent anyone telling
me, recommending or suggesting to me and my co-editor what is fit
to print and what "may/should/better" not be printed.  Before we
(the editors) yield to that sort of influence, we will scuttle
the whole damn thing...('nuff said?)

     If you have received one of the letters, hang on to it. 
Read it.  Study it.  Research the allegations if you're concerned
about them.  Dig out the facts, if you wish.  But do it for you,
ok?  If you'd rather, do what most intelligent folks will do --
throw the damn thing away with the other junk mail.  One less
hassle to get involved in.

.....And that's the way it looks from here.               ___Gary

..........  FROM RMPJ, 2/3/1987