Re[2]: [at-l] A.N.W.R. Vote and political activism.....

[saunterer@jimbullard.org (saunterer@jimbullard.org)]

At 10:39 PM 12/1/01 -0600, Peter H. Fornof wrote:
...clip...
>Personally, I don't mind debates, political activism, and such on this list,
>as long as it relates to the AT. If a subject is not interesting to me, I
>delete it. Same thing goes for the "trivial" stuff. Some of it I read, some
>I delete. To each his own.
>
>As long as we respect each other here, debates and discussions do not need
>to degenerate into arguments, name-calling, and disrespectful discourse.

I'm open to debate (as if that was news :-) ).  The problem is when some 
folks just want to argue.  There is a difference.  A debate implies being 
open to consider the other point of view and taking the trouble to fully 
explain your own.  A few members of AT-L would apparently prefer neither 
argument or debate.  A yet smaller number prefer only argument.  And of 
course, occasionally someone just loses it.  All this is the reason we have 
a <delete> key.

Before characterizing the whole list in any way it should be considered 
that there are over 600 members (if I remember correctly) and I'd guess 
only about 10-15% post much of anything.  We don't know what they 
think.  So... are they the "silent majority"?  Where's Richard Nixon when 
you need him? ;-)

sAunTerer