Hello,
I have been checking the list periodicly for some time, and before
recent events at the New York Trade Center and the Pentagon, in regard to the
topics of the postings which appear and the proper content of those postings
pursuant to the list owners' guidelines on list content. I used to be a
lawyer, and I find the topic of list content to be particularly interesting
to me. I have been aware of this list for less than a year; I have been
diagnosed with PD for almost four years.
I think everyone should say what he/she wants to say about the current
upheavel in our lives and strive for ways for us to integrate that
upheavel/minimize that upheavel into our daily lives. Everything should be
allowed from Camilla's heartfelt, Quaker teachings to the
root-'em-out-anniliate-'em approach of several others. I normally would
agree with Camilla, but these are not normal times, and I struggle because I
do not think we, as a people, as a government, should take lives to avenge
these lives no matter how extreme the circumstances.
My background? My perspective? My father came from an Irish Catholic
family of 13 children, seven boys, where military service was highly prized.
My mother came from a family where her grandfather escaped conscription into
the Swedish army by emigrating, surreptitiously at night, to the United
States. Two of her three brothers served in World War II; the third brother
was too young for World War II. I have three brothers, all of the age to
have served in Viet Nam, but none of them did: one did not pass the induction
physical and the other two received high numbers in the lottery.
My father, a World War !! veteran, did not want any of his sons to
serve in Viet Nam. I did not want any of my brothers to go to Nam either,
but my father surprised me one day by announcing that "we," my father and I,
would take my oldest brother to Canada if my brother wanted to go. I also
knew my brother wanted, desperately wanted, at that time, to go to war, to go
to Nam. My mother was angry that my father suggested such a thing when the
government had already ordered my brother to report for induction. Everyone
disagreed, and argued, for weeks, and, then, in the end, the U.S. Army would
not take my brother and his flat feet and his hip deformities. By the time
my other two brothers were subject to the lottery, we had seen too many young
men in the family and in the neighborhood die over there or come back changed
forever, and no one wanted my younger brothers to go to war.
I understand that there needs to be some form of retaliation, some
means of stopping such terrorism as we have seen in the past week, but I do
not want to go to war, I do not want to send young people to war. I
appreciate, I am interested in the discussions of these terrorism- and
war-related issues on the list. The one topic/s which has not been discussed
as part of this World Trade Center/terrorism discussion on this PD list, and
this seems to be a glaring omission to me, is that every one of us with PD,
every one of us diagnosed with PD, experiences an increase in, an
exacerbation of symptoms under stress. Under normal circumstances none of us
needs to receive or to read offensive, inflammatory, derogatory postings
(even if we have posted similiar postings about others in the past). Under
these extraordinary circumstances, with the horrible, horrible events of this
past week, and the prospects of war looming over our heads, we should take
precautions to protect ourselves and our other PWPs from the effects of such
stress.
We should be able to express our opinions and viewpoints on this PD
list without hurting each other or causing each other stress. I would find
the discussion of the world trade center events itself less stressful if a
few rules were acknowledged and enforced such as: refraining from making
personal, offensive, derogatory comments and attacks on others;
understanding, tolerating, and forgiving the excesses, the misjudgements, and
the mistakes of other PWPs; and waiting and thinking, using the "Mail to be
Sent Later" function on our e-mail before quickly replying to others and
"shooting from the hip" or "off the cuff."
I think I, like everyone else, want to see on my PC a reflection of
what I believe, what I find interesting, but PWP are very diverse and have
very diverse opinions and viewpoints as exemplied on this list in the past
few days. And I would like everyone to be more circumspect, more
descriptive, about the titles to their postings And I would like the PWP on
the list to realize that postings that say only: I agree with so-and-so on
this-and-that and other personal messages do not belong on the entire list
itself. But, I do think we all should be allowed to say, within those few
rules, whatever we want whenever we want. The prospect, the threat of war,
is all-consuming, and, for the stress aspect alone, merits being regarded as
a PD-related topic and proper discussion for this list. We need to make room
for everyone on the list and not to censure or stop the expression of
viewpoints and opinions with which we do not agree. Katie
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