[Alumni-chat] Legal Fund Needs - by Yazz Allen '66

[bdevine (bdevine at antioch-college.edu)]

Let us now proceed to purge the non-ideologically pure from our midst.

Mark P. '71 
He started it!

I guess I'll just stand here and get purged instead, eh, Mark?

Folks,

I can laugh at the image of me as a wizard, I can rankle at being compared to Tom Delay, and I still roll on the floor when I see the bunny with the pancake on its head.  But I'm more than a little uncomfortable with the ad hominems directed toward David.  I've known David since we were both undergraduates, and though most often I find myself 180 degrees at odds with his perspectives, I've always respected David, have valued my conversations and interactions with him, and most of the time have learned something from him.   Like most good Antiochians, David challenges assumptions, reframes the discourse, tweaks the posers and pretenders and applies critical reason to the conventional wisdoms.  Sometimes he makes me mad as hell, and pushes me beyond civility, but his contributions to this discourse ought to be as thoroughly and critically examined and evaluated as any and all others. 

When I see David's house posted along with the very personal stuff, I feel compelled to respond.  The only time I saw an image of my home in an e-mail message, it was from a cop, angry that Mumia Abu Jamal was going to be permitted to speak at Antioch's commencement.  The words accompanying the image said, "I know where you live, I've seen you in your bedroom window, you're dead meat."  The image was such an unimaginable invasion and threat that it still haunts me.  I would not like for anyone else to experience that sense of violation of personal space, and I would not like to see the dialogue devolve to personal attack.    

If my expressed anger precipitated these ad hominem attacks, I sincerely apologize.  I would hope that we could deal with differences with good humor and civility.  There is so much to be done, and it will require all of us to meet the challenges ahead.  

Bob