Dear Jerry
I've thought long and hard about whether to reply to your email on-list
because I'm not sure how 'relevant' my reply might be. But I feel I have
to respond since I feel deeply shaken not only by events in the US but by
the extraordinary correspondence I've read on the list today.
Your initial email shocked me to the quick. In no world imaginable is
there an appropriate place for the atrocity we all witnessed yesterday and
which we are all desperately trying to live with today. Yet still it
happened and thus we are all in our homes, our workplaces and, yes, our
Internet mailing lists trying to help ourselves and each other to come to
terms with how our worlds have changed. At such a time I feel that
questioning listserv boundaries has no place.
As if that was not enough, however, I was even further disturbed by the
sanctimonious tone of your second email in which you attempt to justify the
first. If you believe you might have been naive to expect us to '
understand the serious motive behind [your initial] message' I feel you are
now even more naive to try to justify an email which struck many as
extraordinarily callous. I don't want to take this any further. Nor do I
want to provoke extra debate. Nor do I particularly want you to reply to
this in a further attempt at belated self-justification. I just feel that
you should be a little quiet for a while.
To Peter in Virginia. Please don't desert the list - your contributions
have been very valuable over time and I for one welcome your interest and
your different perspective. I've already written to you off-list, I know,
but my thoughts are still with you .
Yours
Jenni Waugh
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