Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!lsicom2!netsys!daemon
From: niu.bitnet!TK0JUT2@netsys.NETSYS.COM
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Moving beyond the flame war?
Message-ID: <200@netsys.NETSYS.COM>
Date: 12 Oct 90 00:14:19 GMT
Sender: daemon@netsys.NETSYS.COM
Lines: 15

I've exchanged a few private notes with John Haugh and he indicates that his
original post that rankled many of us was not intended to be mean spirited,
and that he in fact wishes the subject of his post good luck and feels
compassion for his situation.

Many of us have a tendancy to personalize issues which results in comments
reflecting passion, anger, or simply bad taste.  Many of us share identical
concerns, but addressing these concerns is diverted when we begin attacking
each other in ways that become ad hominem rather than productive. Sometimes a
person and an issue are bound together and one cannot be discussed without the
other.

Perhaps we can take a few obvious lessons from all this and move on to engage
in the real issues of protecting the rights of *all* computer users from
unnecessary government control.