At 06:06 AM 9/1/2009, Joy Hecht wrote:
>I didn't object to it being closed, but having originated it, it was no more
>political than if I'd posted about the death of a family member.  It was
>very much an expression of sadness to a community of friends, Friday or no
>Friday.

Hi Joy -- I understand what you're saying.  The trouble is that half
your friends think the man walked on water, half of them spit when
they hear his name and so forth, and so it's intrinsically and
inescapably political even though you don't want it to be; and
discussing politics and politicians is often divisive and nasty, and
people forget to be civil and say things that they certainly ought to
be ashamed of later but often aren't.

So therefor since we are a list that values civility very highly, we
simply don't talk about politics, ever (or sex, or religion, for the
same reason).

Every once in a while a statesman comes along who is so respected
that even his enemies will say "A great man died today we have
suffered a great loss," but it's pretty rare, and this certainly
wasn't one of those times.

I understand that you grieve for the man and had no political ax to
grind at the time; but in a group of 800 people *someone* is going to
pick it up and run with it and then it gets ugly very quickly.  I
happened to be looking when you posted and I didn't say anything
because it was almost midnight.  John's post made me wince a little
bit but I let it pass; but when Karl posted I knew that the cat was
among the pigeons for sure, so I officially shut it down because even
though Karl's post had nothing to do with Mr. Kennedy some people
would be guaranteed not to think so.

Do you understand?

Cheers,
David

  --
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'89 Po' White Star "Scamp"