[at-l] Anti ATC/at-l editorial by Wingfoot

[rafe.bustin@verizon.net (Raphael Bustin)]

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At 05:35 PM 10/19/2002 -0400, sAunTerer wrote:


>And... It was the list members who volunteered to chip in.  Ryan wasn't
>"bribing" us.  He was trying to get our attention in the midst of verbal
>battles and challenging us to focus on what AT-L was intended to be.  Many
>of us not only accepted the challenge but chose to raise the ante.  It's
>interesting that by describing what happened using the word "bribe" he put
>a negative spin on a positive act.  Ryan wanted to return the list to a
>'campfire' level of conversation.  He succeeded.  Many AT-Lers saw it as an
>opportunity to do a good thing for the trail.  They succeeded.  How can
>that be a bad thing?



Any time money changes hands to effect a change of
behavior, that's a bribe, IMHO.  We've been around this
block before, Jim.

It's too bad WF is such a vengeful, egotistical fellow.
It's too bad someone here had to make an issue of
WF's anti-AT-L rant.  It's too bad, I suppose, that
ATN magazine had to write that story so as to hand
WF one more thing to be pissed off about.

I'm no big fan of WF -- and quite proud to have been
booted from his precious list -- but even a stopped clock
is right twice a day, and on this one (very narrow) point,
I think WF is dead on.

Ryan took a very creative approach to calming down
the list.  It worked, sort of.  The numerous follow-on pledges
weren't Ryan's idea.  I'm certain they were offered with the
best of intentions, but I was, frankly, aghast at the whole
affair.

The whole time, I was amazed that nobody spoke a word
about the Orwellian nature of the thing.  To use money to
steer a discussion is not a good thing -- even if the
intention was good.  Nothing's quite as precious as free
speech.

Speaking for myself, I never saw the mission of this list
(AT-L) as raising money for ATC.  I've given plenty of my
own money to ATC over the years, but I resented the
pressure to restrict my public expression for the sake of
a well-intentioned, but utterly spurious charity drive.


rafe b
aka terrapin
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