It is easy to sit in my office at home or at work at imagine that my
Internet interactions are private -- Only my intended audiences read my
e-mail to various discussion groups, and I don't receive e-mail from
unwanted or uninvited sources. The reality is that the Internet is a very
public place. This reality is at the heart of a revolution the even
Marshall McCluhan could not envision as part the the global community.
I have enjoyed the Vision 2020 discussion group, even though I have not
lived in the Palouse for over two years. The best part of 2020 is that the
discussions have been prompted by the concerns of the Visionaries -- at
times long-range implications of zoning or ecomonic policies, and at other
times immediate responses to such events as the closing of a beloved
downtown delicatessen or the specifications of a new Moscow swimming pool.
So I am concerned about two recent Vision2020 threads that, in my view, are
strongly linked. The first thread is the discussion about the
appropriateness of postings by politicians such as Tom Trail. The second is
the discussion about spam (i.e., mass distribution of unwanted advertising
to Vision 2020 members).
My reaction is simple -- we each have a delete key, or, for many of us, a
'trash button' that can immediately consign unwanted e-mail to oblivion.
The amount of spam and political hype (regardless of your definition of
'hype') in the 2020 group has been minimal, and does not warrant 'official
policy' or defensive reaction at this time.
On the contrary, although I am not a spam fan, the more my representatives
and other politicians are willing to commit to writing, the happier I am.
One of the current problems with government is that our representatives
intimate much but say little.
Restricting access to Vision 2020 is censorship. Do we need it? I believe not.
Lou S.
Lou Sternberg, Ph.D. (208)343-0555
5017 Bel Air loustern@primenet.com
Boise ID 83705-2777