Re: Rules

["John and Laurie Danahy" <JDANAHY@turbonet.com>]

John and Laurie Danahy
jdanahy@turbonet.com

I support the steering committees recommendations.
  
I also feel that given those guidelines, folks can still bring problems and
concerns to this forum. They just need to follow the guidelines of common
courtesy and legal prudence.  Attaching names or personal identification to
allegations of wrongdoing in a public forum, without legal evidence, is
both discourteous and probably actionable.  Stating a problem, such as "How
can we determine if our justice system treats citizens fairly regardless of
income and standing in the community?" is a valid concern, worth debating
and acting upon.  Very few people are willing to jump on a bandwagon, no
matter how important the issue, if they don't know who's driving, or
whether that driver has a personal agenda.  It doesn't mean they don't care
about the issue, they may just prefer a different approach.

I really don't believe that the Moscow community is completely uncaring
towards folks with lower incomes.  Yes, there is some discrimination.  Yes,
there are people who have recieved a raw deal.  Yes, there are people who
didn't get the justice they deserved.  That happens in any town, any state,
any nation, in our imperfect world.  But there are many folks who work in
their own way towards building a better community.  

I work with families who fall below the poverty level.  The Moscow
community has helped the children of these families by: volunteering their
time to read to children, building classroom and outdoor equipment,
donating food and clothing, seeing that a sick child could travel to and
recieve specialized medical care, donating thousands of dollars worth of
equipment (including a computer system and specialized play equipment for
children with special needs), ensuring that every child in the program
recieves holiday gifts, and making sure that every child leaves the program
with at least three books to call their very own.  These services have been
donated by folks of all ages and walks of life, including the families
themselves.  There are many people who care.

Each of us must choose the issues we work on, based on our individual
interests, talents and energies.  My battle may not be your battle, but
both may be worth fighting.  I happen to like working with challenging
preschoolers, but I don't expect everyone to share that pleasure first
hand.  I hate working with budgets and numbers, but I am grateful to the
citizens who take the time and energy to make sense of community spending. 
I choose to focus on actions I can take in the future, rather than dissect
the errors of the past, but I appreciate astute historians who can provide
a perpective from which I can move forward.  I am thankful there are people
in this community who make an effort to bring the arts to people, and who
work to create beauty in expected and unexpected places.

There are many just causes, and I appreciate this list because it increases
my awareness of what others are doing to strengthen our community.  When I
see where my own efforts can compliment or meld with the efforts of others,
I try to make that blend happen.  If an issue is important, but out of my
area of expertise or ability to take action, I absorb the information to be
used if/when the time comes that I can or should take action.  If the
information is irrelevent, malicious, or just plain boring, I use the
delete key.  If the person posting is a particulary skilled writer who
either makes me think or laugh, I read the post twice and share it with
others who might appreciate the material.  

Thank you to the folks who have put their time and energy into providing
this forum.  Please, let's keep it going with civil discourse.

Laurie

 
----------
> From: John Teeter <johnt@fsr.com>
> To: 'Joel Hamilton' <joelh@uidaho.edu>; vision2020@moscow.com
> Subject: RE: Rules
> Date: Tuesday, June 02, 1998 4:31 PM
> 
> the archives could pose a problem anyway -- (potentiallly) libelous
statements can still
> be made by people who subscribe and attach their name to a piece of mail.
> 
> If it goes into the archive, then we (fsr) are the publisher of the
statement - implying implicit
> support of the statements made:(  So at some point, there still may be a
need to 
> (temporarily?) remove some items from the archive.  Is it censorship?  I
certainly don't
> want a big hammer to fall.....
> 
> johnt
> 
> On Tuesday, June 02, 1998 2:48 PM, Joel Hamilton [SMTP:joelh@uidaho.edu]
wrote:
> > 
> > I support the steering committees proposal.  
> > <snip>
> > .....by FSR, we may not have much choice.  I also agree with Dale, that
with the
> > subscription rule the archives may not be a problem.
> > 
> > Joel Hamilton