[Am-info] Thankyou Mr. Dodel

[Mitch Stone]

--- From a message sent by Felmon Davis on 10/31/01 3:15 PM ---

>although his last email or two were stupid, tasteless and 
>uncalled-for - all the stuff about wishing death and disease on 
>people - I believe he was unfairly dealt with.
>
>I know there's some history here between him and the rest of you and 
>I've caught a bit of it from the past but nothing he said _this_ time 
>merited the treatment he got.
>
>he made an analogy to make a point and _some_ here _insisted_ -- 
>absolutely _insisted_ -- on reading it the wrong way. he explained 
>himself several times; heck, I tried to explain it a couple of times. 
>some pretended they felt 'threatened'. it was silly. the only point 
>was to enjoy indignation at his expense.
>
>it's over now, and he's wrapped it up in a ball of spite dowsed in 
>bile, making defense of him all the more distasteful, so a bad show 
>all around but thankfully the curtains down and we can get on to 
>better things.
>
>I'm sort of wondering if the whole country isn't right now in a fit 
>of hysteria....

A reasonable observation. Skins are pretty thin these days, I've noticed, 
and people who run close to the edge anyway may be tempted to dive over 
without much inducement. The column that generated my most recent death 
threat was published a week before Sept. 11, but the threat did not 
arrive until a week afterwards. I don't think this was a coincidence. 
Some of these reactions are products of unfocused rage as much as they 
are of anything more specific.

How does the old saying go, "If you can keep your head while others are 
losing theirs, you obviously don't understand what's happening."

 Mitch Stone  
 mitch@accidentalexpert.com