Politics

[michael]

Are we really apologizing for breaking the (apparently) strict rules of the 
mailing list?

I'm impressed and glad to be able to be able to have an impromptu, near 
real-time conversation with anyone around the world who wishes to join in. 
And, hell, I was raised on the internet! Those of you, most of which are 
probably old enough to be my father, should pay more attention to the spirit 
of the conversation, and stop bitching at one another and at the fact that, 
in your opinion, such heated political conversation only has one place, and 
that's when and where it's invited. A few of you probably spent as much time 
announcing you were leaving as it took you to delete the thread once you 
noticed the direction it had gone, so, spare us the theatrics.

I'll still be proud to be involved in such a thing, even if it's just a geeky 
mailing list. Those of you who are older, and what the hell, wiser, continue 
throwing fits and wasting your time telling everyone else that YOU hope this 
conversation ends soon, so that you don't have to keep watching the rest of 
us argue/debate/whatever you want to call it- have some sort of discourse 
about the things going on around us. 

And if anyone has a problem with me calling out those that just make me 
nauseous, you know where to find my Inbox. I've been a part of too many of 
these types of conversations that all end the same way for me not to say 
anything, and I, for one, aren't going to sit around quietly while people try 
to be proud of having something better to do than debate. The Romans and 
Greeks might not have gotten a lot right, but they understood that being a 
citizen involved discussion with those holding dissenting opinions, and that 
without discussion, we become a rabble of fools, worrying more about trade 
and money and our own situation than anything else.

-Michael