angents

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TANGENTS is one of America's most interesting "open forums' for the reporting of events and the expression of individual viewpoints on the subject of sexual orientation and behavior. But it depends on YOU, the reader, for clippings, reports and letters which can be used for its columns. KEEP THEM COMING to 2256 Venice Boulevard by consulting your local news sources regularly, being sure to include NAME and DATE of publication with each clipping. UNDATED, UNIDENTIFIED CLIPPINGS MUST BE DISCARDED.

READING BREEDS CRIME,

FBI MAN ALLEGES

It is a pity people learn to read, then read that reading, itself, ranks probably top in the category of public dangers (according to an FBI spokesman, that is). It may be merely inept reporting, but if not, FBI Training Coordinator Walter V. McLaughlin has gone on record with what amounts to a blanket denunciation of literacy and education, in what seems the most appalling piece of arrogance and stupidity to see print in the 20th or any other century. In the process, big cities are likened to "cesspools" with a "double share of sex deviates and degenerates" who are, of course, lumped indiscriminately with sado-masochists and "hooded prowlers."

As reported in the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION for 11/9 or there-

18

abouts, Mr. McLaughlin (described as "one of the nation's top police authorities in sex criminology") is quoted in connection with a police training course on sex crimes being conducted by the FBI and Metropol in Atlanta.

"It's the people living in the communities themselves that do these things," he is said to have told a reporter, "not some mysterious stranger who drifts into town. Don't look for the mysterious stranger. Most of these fancy type (sex) crimes is done by the well-to-do, your well-educated people. Reading does it. When you read, you begin to think. You want to try new things.

So now, dear reader, since of course you want to help reduce the crime rate, forget you know how to read, throw all your books away, and, above all . . . DON'T THINK!