[Vision2020] A Change in the Weather

[Tony Simpson]

Chas,

Sure wish I could cry like the rest over your departure, but it seems to me that you were right in the thick of all that "childish sniping and ridiculous accusations" you accuse a nebulous minority of committing.  I can't say that I regret that the evolution of this forum to include a broader array of views has caused you to bail out.  Many people on the left share your distaste for balance.  Indeed, as Editor Emeritus, Bill Hall of the Tribune has stated, the truest test of one's respect for the first amendment is when it comes time to share the forum with those with whom you disagree.   Unfortunately you have failed Editor Hall's test.  never the less, I wish you luck, and perhaps a more genuine appreciation of the first amendment, in the future.

Stay cool dude,    --Tony

  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Donovan Arnold 
  To: Chasuk ; Vision2020 
  Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 6:06 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] A Change in the Weather


  Chas,

  This is most disappointing news. Thanks for all your input on Vision 2020. 

  Best,

  _DJA

  Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com> wrote:
    I like the community that is Vision2020, and I've come to consider
    many of you my friends. However, I just can't take it any more. The
    childish sniping and ridiculous accusations of the minority of you
    have polluted the forum, and polluted my soul, so it has come time to
    bid you all adieu.

    A few thoughts before I leave, for those who wish to read them.

    First, Doug Wilson isn't going away. When an opponent is permanently
    ensconced (he isn't my opponent, but he is apparently the opponent of
    many of you), then the options are warfare, or a treaty. I'm an
    ecumenical kind of guy. I favor treaties over never-ending strife,
    even if I have fundamental disagreements with my fellow signatories.
    If Doug Wilson were Fred Phelps, or the late Richard Butler, I
    wouldn't advocate a treaty. But Doug Wilson isn't Phelps or Butler,
    even if you want to paint him that way.

    If the opposition to Wilson were not so petulant, inane, and
    irrational, and if it were conducted civilly, then my heart wouldn't
    be so heavy. I've been unkind and unproductively adversarial, which
    is part of the reason that I'm leaving. When you start to become what
    you despise, it is time to disentangle. I'm disentangling, with my
    apologies to everyone I've offended.

    Here is a quote from one of my favorite books that explains it better
    than I can:

    "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp,
    drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily
    pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every
    funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper
    hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me
    from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking
    people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon
    as I can."

    There's been a change in the weather. I'm going to sea.

    When I say that I am ecumenical, I don't mean it in the sense of
    merely Christian unity, as I'm not a Christian. I mean it in the
    broader sense of worldwide unity. This starts with co-operation
    between groups, without unity necessarily being the goal. Unity comes
    later, if at all. Co-operation and understanding is a worthwhile goal
    in itself.

    I've conducted an interview with Douglas Wilson that I think is
    illuminating. I'm not a Wilson fanboy, I haven't been ideologically
    seduced by him, but I am trying to do my part in hastening that
    treaty. I'll visit Vision2020 one final time to post the URL where
    that interview can be read in its unexpurgated entirety.

    Cheers,

    Chas

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