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Date:      Sat, 12 Feb 2005 01:49:03 -0800
From:      "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>
To:        <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Cc:        FreeBSD@keyslapper.net
Subject:    RE: Please don't change Beastie to another crap logo suchasNetBSD!!!
Message-ID:  <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNIEGAFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
In-Reply-To: <20050211151210.GB1404@keyslapper.net>

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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Louis LeBlanc
> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 7:12 AM
> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Please don't change Beastie to another crap logo
> suchasNetBSD!!!
>

> So, do you draw the line in the sand here, or just step back?  I've
> drawn my lines before, and most of the time I'm *made* to step back.
> Every time you draw another line, you get more fanatical or more
> tired.  If you rankle over the lines you've drawn in the past, you get
> more fanatical.  Otherwise those lines start to make less sense and
> you just get tired and start accepting the ideals you drew lines
> against.
>

This misses the point, Louis.

You and I both understand the ideals at stake with Beastie.  But an even
more
important ideal is that a civilized person fights against something
he sees that is wrong, he does not remain silent.  Remaining
silent when an injustice is being done makes you no better than
the criminal doing the injustice.  Even if we lose this and are
pushed over, it doesen't matter, because when we chose to
fight, even though we lose, that means we have won when it comes to
the higher ideal of fighting against injustice.

I feel sorry for people like Garance, really.  Here's a person
who is tired of explaining Beastie, in short, he is tired of
explaining the ideals of why FreeBSD is important.  To him, FreeBSD
is just another operating system - it's a better tool than the
others, yes, but to him that is all there is to it.  He doesen't
really care about the ideals behind Open Source, not emotionally
that is.  To him it is all intellectual.  He has no passion anymore
for it, if he ever did.  His goal is to see FreeBSD expanded
simply because it's better than all the other operating systems,
and he is willing even to sacrifice things that are integral
to it - such as Beastie - in his quest to expand it.
What he sadly doesen't understand is that going down this
road means that at every turn you compromise something else, and
that by the time you get to the end of the road, what you have
been carrying is so twisted and changed that you hate it and
hate yourself for allowing it to be ruined.

You and I we know that there is more to the FreeBSD operating
system movement than mere software.  And a lot of the userbase
understands this at a gut level too.  We may not be
able to immediately frame in words what that indefinable
thing is - but we know it's there.  Unless you want to switch
that part of yourself off, your not going to be able to help
seeing that what is happening is wrong.  And when you know
that something is wrong, you also know that you have a duty
to speak out about it.

Also, don't forget that there are many people that who are
just beginning to understand what FreeBSD is all about.  Even
though they don't fully understand what makes FreeBSD so
special and unique yet, this issue still matters to them, and
they are depending on folks like us who do fully understand
it.  We also have a duty to them to speak out.


Ted



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