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Re: Sharon Centanne's STOP CHENEY email to list



Lucinda and all,

While I agree in principle with your suggestions that we all remain aware
and active (whether or not I disagree with your political views), I have to
disagree with your prescription.  My main objection is simply the nature of
this forum - we are here to discuss and debate archival topics.  Not the
environment.  Not the developments of the past election.  Not the prospects
for the next one.

You ask (reasonably enough) "why not?"  In no particular order, here are my
objections:

1) Partisanship - the nature of politics has always been argumentative;
people have different views, and politics often draws very strong
emotions/opinions out of people.  Fortunately we're in a free country where
people have a right to those opinions (many of our non-US colleagues may not
have that right, of course), and I'm delighted they choose to express them,
but I for one don't want to get in the middle of a firefight.  I don't much
care which side is calling whose candidate the Antichrist, but these
discussions always seem to break down into nasty comments, & I don't care to
read them, or waste the time dumping them in the trash.

2) Civility - in a similar vein to point one, there's too much nastiness
involved in the political conversations (evidenced by the response to
Sharon's post).  The collegiality of this list is one of the biggest draws
for me.  If people are going to vent the way some have, I'd rather read the
spam on genital enlargement - at leas those posters are polite.

3) Appropriateness - again, this is an archives listserv.  We talk about
archival topics.  Unless it relates directly to that (as the Baker thread
did), I feel it belongs elsewhere.  I'm a hockey fan, but I don't expect to
share my opinions on the sport here - there are plenty of other fora for
that sort of conversation.

I don't mean to belittle the activism of our members.  I admire the strength
of conviction, even where I disagree with the cause.  I for one choose not
to be so involved - I have other priorities and that's my right as
(fortunately for me) a citizen of the United States.  I do, however, object
strongly to being subjected to emails on a list that I feel have good reason
to be posted elsewhere.

Since my tongue-in-cheek request of the other day may have missed the mark a
little, I respectfully request that political discussion not centering
particularly on the archival world be kept off the list.

DS
______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

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