Rethinking it all again, again...

An open letter to the current participants in the interminable uproar
on ROFF:

This is getting nuts. Someone GROW UP for gods sake. There's an easy
opportunity to win this unwinnable war. Who will be the first to see
it?

I spent a few hours last night reading through the origins of the
recent food-fight here, and getting a sense of the bigger picture. Its
not worth going into too many details without starting a hopeless
Israeli-Arab "He started it" endless debate, but I think I can safely
say that this entire thing HAS started, has evolved, and now has wings
of its own, and is pretty much decimating the environment here. There
are far too many things out of whack from this for a simple unraveling
of facts to solve, but there is a pretty clear trend of events that is
important.

Back in the 'Catch and Release' thread, shortly after several folks
on ROFF (Ken included) gave Mike good wishes for his schoolboy
elatedness at his new love affair, Mike posted some very distasteful
and (to us Ummericans, anyway) politically incorrect and emotionally-
charged opinions about gays. Ken, true to form and true to his morals,
came out clearly against it, and in the bumbling spar-and-parry that
ensued, both sides dug in deeper until pretty much open warfare was
declared, but in a pseudo-detente.

After that, several periods of relative calm ensued, but on several
occasions, Mike or Ken baited the other, either deliberately or in
self-depreciating jest, which almost invariably caused the catfight
warfare to pick up where it left off. Until we get to now, where it is
gloves-off, no holds barred, monothematic, and far too many offenses
on all sides and far too many toes stepped on for anyone to claim that
they still have clean hands.

Its a barroom brawl, the bar is getting all busted up. Who cares at
this point how it started or what they are fighting about.

The solution has got to come from someone taking the moral high
ground, and walking away from it. Boom, just like that; drop it and
don't take the bait any more.

No one can say "well, ____ should do it because they are wrong."
Everyone is wrong, because the wrongness of this whole mess is not
about homophobia, or fighting unjust causes with just or unjust means;
the wrongness of this whole mess is that the gang warfare here is
ruining ROFF for many people; lurkers and old-timers. We will never
resolve the former, we can only resolve the latter.


So here's the chance for one of you to grab the golden ring, win the
argument by winning the 'this whole thing has grown beyond stupid, and
I'll be the first to recognize that we're engaging in repeating
behaviors that keep producing the same outcome, and I'll step off this
train first."

So who's it going to be. There might not be another chance to 'win'
this, because its gone well beyond being unwinnable.

--riverman