Date:         Wed, 6 Dec 1995 11:43:34 EST
From: "a candle..." <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      FILLER:  List Abuse and Great Writing
Comments: To: the bushelbasket? <writers@mitvma.mit.edu>

{now sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of the golden fleas,
and of the dog who scratched them out,
here on the writers' list...}

[they ask for the ten commandments and you give them this?  look,
maybe you should think about a little Job, or some parables?  how
about something serious?]

When people asked about abuse, I thought about the recent
spamming--using this and other lists to advertise various commercial
attempts, often with little or no thought given to whether the
advertisement had any relationship to the purpose of the list.  Such
misuse of the collected addresses (and the computer resources to
process and mail) seems like fairly obviously abuse.

Then I remembered the case of "virtual stalking" that we had a while
ago.  I think almost everyone would agree that was abuse.

Frankly, the verbal violence that erupts from time to time,
threatening and ostracizing individuals with little or no attempt at
understanding or recognition that difference is not a threat--this
worries me.  The "ride 'em out of town on a rail 'cause they're not
like us" mentality has never made much sense to me, and the mob
thinking that goes with it frightens me in its rapid shedding of the
little veneer of civilization that often seems to be all that stands
between us and historic excesses and abuses.  I can't say that it is
abuse, although the "assumed stance" of having the LIST (that nebulous
silent majority?)  backing individual brutality and attacks seems far
too close to abuse for comfort.

[thou shalt not spam.  thou shalt not stalk.  thou shalt not roust your
neighbor, lest thee be rousted in thine own time.  well, not good,
but...you got seven more?]

I struggled with some other possibilities, close shaves, and shakeups
the list has gone through.  Some seemed like abuse, some merely
unfortunate, and who was I to figure out this mess?

Then I realized that I really don't need to worry.

{the mate was a mighty scribbler,
the captain told tall tales,
and the list was headed into the storm,
when our Jason scratched his thighs...}

Last night, Peter, Paul and Mary (on one of the PBS stations) sang
about lighting one candle.

I realized that all we need is one candle.  Not a box of don't's, just a
light shining in the darkness, showing us ways that we can grow.

(-:It was our last, best hope for peace...  A shining beacon in space,
all alone in the night... It was the dawn of the Third Age of
Mankind...the year the Great War came upon us all...:-)

We've got lots of folks ready to light that candle.

And if all else fails--I'll be in my sandbox, with a candle.  You'll
recognize me, 'cause I'll be hunched over it, protecting that flame,
waving at passing children with a smile, and humming.

"Deep in my heart,
I do believe,
that we
shall
overcome
some day..."

{the whether started getting mixed,
and I forgot the tune,
but you'll never be completely adrift
here on tink's crazy list...}

So, let me suggest that as long as people are trying--whether they can
only write something short or whether they are great cornucopia of words
bringing forth weighty volumes--as long as someone is trying to do
something on this list, damn the flames, full writing ahead!

write unto others as you would have them...well, you know how that
comes out.

{so sit right back and write a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip,
that started with an exercise,
here on this very list...!}

anyway, instead of whipping ourselves into a frenzy about abuse, let's
work on that great writing.

[and the world will be better for this,
that one human, scorned and tattered and torn,
still wrote with his last drop of blood...
still clicked at a keyboard with dreams...
still strove to reach the unreachable staaaaars!

hum.  not quite there yet...but I'm going to keep trying!]

keep writing.
tink