"Dee D. Flint" wrote in message
.com...

"Clint" rattlehead at computron dot net wrote in message
...
(4) The public at large (ham radio operators) should NOT
be BURDENED with having to make choices; they
should not have the freedom to choose how to use
thier skills to the ends that they see fit; such is an
IMPOSITION upon them.


By eliminating the testing requirement for Morse code, we are seriously
undermining people's freedom of choice.

Oh, that is such dreadful stretch it literally IS laughable. Be reducing or
eliminating a requirement we are LIMITING freedom? just what
backwards, reverse logic came up with THAT?

or, if this is it....

Keeping the test means that individuals will have a
better knowledge base upon which to choose whether or not to pursue Morse
code to proficient level.

THAT is where the very basic logic that the PCTA crowd has is incorrect!
You are refusing to diffuse the two subjects of "testing" and "use on the
bands".
Morse code, as well as ssb, fm, fax, and every other mode of operation
exists totaly independant of testing for it... for the very simple reason
that the
testing process is NOT the one and only available means for learning about
it.
Reference books, history, word of mouth, the internet, and every other
method
available for exchanging ideas in society will continuously make it and
every
other legal form of communication readily available to anybody who has,
AND THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART, an basic natural desire to do so.
If this desire doesn't exist, over a thousand years of human history tells
us
that FORCEING people to do something they do not want to do naturally
compels them to resist it. I honestly believe this is one of the basic
reasons
you DO see such a resentment for the code today.

Free of exterior pressures, allowing a free society to evolve naturally and
pursue it's natural course, just like in economics and politics, is the best
policy you can use.

Let me give you another example; 8-track tapes. They were available
before cassettes and compact disks were. It is illogical to make a law
REQUIREING people to learn about 8-track tapes, "just so they
can have the knowledge base necissary to make an informed
decision". This comes naturally; 8-track tapes need not and SHOULD
not have been subsidized by the federal government in any way.
The free market chose what they did for such a multitude of reasons,
each on of which are necessary to enumerate here but the ultimate
reason is the same. Seriously; what logic would there be if you
went to hastings, or discount music, walmart, or whatever retailer
you can name and wanted to buy a compact disk, and the salesman
there said "i'm sorry sir, first you are going to have to present your
license proving that you have been schooled in the history and
use of 8-track tapes."

Clint
KB5ZHT