[Vision2020] The state of this forum

[Carl Westberg]

There's been some comments about the "hypocrisy" of past unsigned posts to 
V2020 that have gone unchallenged, while this one has caused outrage.  I 
agree, to a point.  But, while other such postings certainly pushed the 
envelope, and certainly made many of us uncomfortable, this particular one 
not only pushed the envelope, it burst through the envelope and spilled its 
noxious contents all over everyone.  And I agree with Joan that this has, in 
a curious way, united everyone from left to right and in between.  The 
listserve has been straying, and maybe (hopefully) this can be a catalyst 
for getting it back on track again.                                          
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
        Carl Westberg Jr.

>From: Joan Opyr <joanopyr at earthlink.net>
>To: Vision2020 Moscow <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: [Vision2020] The state of this forum
>Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 00:25:52 -0700
>
>Dear Visionaries:
>
>I certainly understand Linda's impulse in calling for an end to this forum 
>in its present unmoderated form.  Over the many years that Vision 2020 has 
>been in existence, we've been plagued by the likes of Edna Wilmington, Faul 
>Ottomaticks, Stigmatta X and a host of other frauds, fakers and fools.  The 
>soulless monster who posted this morning is a direct descendent of these 
>trolls, and he or she has rightly been condemned by the entire list -- 
>left, right and center.  It seems to me that we are as close to universally 
>united as we will ever be in our collective disgust and horror that anyone 
>would be so thoughtless, so cruel, and so grotesquely inhumane.
>
>I wasn't able to access my email this morning (because I somehow managed to 
>download the Welchia virus, God help me), but my phone began ringing off 
>the hook within five minutes of the posting of that message.  People were 
>outraged.  They wanted to vent and to speculate and to talk about what we, 
>as a community, can and should do in response.  Strangely enough, Linda, 
>this has given me renewed hope for this forum and for this town -- I heard 
>about this email before I actually read it.  A great number of people cared 
>enough to get on the telephone and begin calling one another to talk about 
>what ought to be done in response to this atrocity.  Everyone -- and I do 
>mean everyone -- wants to know who did this.  We all want this person 
>rounded up, routed out, and publicly identified and shamed.  This says to 
>me that there are very definite limits to what we, as a community, consider 
>acceptable and unacceptable.  More importantly, we are, for the first time 
>in a long time, united.
>
>I'm sorry it took a vicious troll to bring us together, but together we 
>are, and perhaps we can take comfort in that.
>
>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
>www.auntie-establishment.com
>
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