Got your back

[Patrick.Ryan at westover.af.mil]

Egg,
 
While we might not always agree it's pretty shameful for you to have to
put up with some of the crap disguised as "thoughtful discourse"  but is
in reality pure hatred especially sent "personally".  Restraint is a
wonderful thing. I can't tell you the number of times I've written a
post to Harry et al only to delete it before hitting the send button
(which is actually pretty theraputic) - for example when I was dubbed
the list's resident fascist. It took me writing an in kind emotional
response (and subsequently deleting it) to realize it's a wasted effort
and to be even more cliche - only sinks me to a lower level myself.
 
The shock remains the frequency at which our culture has begun to raise
disagreement to a personal emotional level - politics, sports - it
doesn't really matter the topic - for some reason there no longer
remains much room for compromise or even more shocking to even allow
opinons other then our own to even be espoused. We as a culture only
used to do that type thing for the really inflammatory subjects:
religion, abortion, sex - you know the type of subjects considered taboo
in social company. Now it's every subject - no matter how innocuous. Is
declaring war over whether Danny Ainge is a good or bad GM necessary? If
you're getting personally attacked over that type of subject - wow.
 
However, I remain steadfast that no matter what we may disagree on - I
will defend your right to announce those beliefs forever. Post on Egg. I
won't agree with everything, but at the same time you have every right
to voice your opinion.