>>> Item number 26772 from WRITERS LOG9403B --- (37 records) ----- <<<
Date:         Wed, 9 Mar 1994 05:30:02 JST
Reply-To:     WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Sender:       WRITERS <WRITERS@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
From:         Mike Barker <barker@AEGIS.OR.JP>
Subject:      PERSONAL STAND: Please Comment (was: Subject: SUB: Waiting)

Jane Hamilton wrote:
- well, and if you think I'm qualified to comment on poetry submissions.

Jane - if you want to read poetry, please comment.  I can't think of any
necessary qualifications to comment aside from being willing to read and
react to it, and those qualities are inherent in your question.

Please?

This question (and similar ones raised recently) remind me that on
occasion here on the list, I should make clear my personal stand on
opinions.

Simply stated, I believe that this list is quite large enough for anyone
and everyone to have their say.

I also believe that comments, expansions, differing opinions, questions,
even humor and all the other sheaf of possibilities are useful methods
of adding to the available options.  I do not consider them as opposed
to, critical, or otherwise antagonistic to what other people have said.
Instead, I see them as enlarging upon what has been said.

I do not consider the field of ideas (represented by this list) as a
jousting field, a marketplace, a mound for the anointed to speak
from, or anything else except a level playing field for friends to
use together.  That's enough for me, and I apologize for the
excessive wordiness and tardiness of response that may hide that
stance sometimes.

If you don't agree, let's talk about it, okay?
tink