Phew! I find myself really on the spot with this. A recently departed
contributor to this list has requested, rather strongly, that I forward this
message from him. I do so with considerable hesitation, particularly as it's
continuing a festering sore, and too because it is without the 'rules' of
the list. But, disagree with its contents though I may, I would feel
lacking, for reasons that probably evade even myself, if I ignored the
request. I would like to think of healing words here, this is all getting
too much, but in the absence of a mystical vocabulary I guess I will have to
resort to:

Um.

Message follows

Best

Dave


----- Original Message -----
From: "kent johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 9:00 PM
Subject: To Poetryect [via the kindness of David B.]


> [Preface to David:
>
> Why, David, your post yeterday, what utterly viscid disingenuousness. And
> that such would be coming from you, no less, star fullback for "Kill the
> Lacanian/VeRT Bastards United," winner of this year's Poetry Listserv
League
> Sportsmanship Award!
>
> Listen, my dear fellow, you know exactly what was the intent and message
of
> Candice Ward's post on the e-mail virus. And just in case the "Bircumshaw"
> written across the back of your jersey might denote SOME remaining shadow
of
> authorial honesty and self-respect, I would like to challenge you with the
> following: That given the impossibility of directly defending myself
> against the malicious innuendoes and calumnies that Candice Ward has put
> forth as
> justification for my removal from Poetryetc, you send the below to
> Poetryetc for the list members' free and democratic consideration. What
say
> you?
>
> Let me know, please. If you do, I will forgive every word of wild personal
> abuse you spit at me and Jacques Debrot during the Lacan fracas at
Brit-Po.
> --Kent]
>
>
>
> -----------
> Message:
>
> Dear members of Poetryetc (and other members of the poetry and academic
> communities, who feel that Listserv moderators should never resort to
> fabrication and slander as tactical tools of power and control, and who
feel
> so because such behavior constitutes an insidious threat to free
discourse,
> and who agree that such behavior should be condemned as a matter of
> principle, for the behavior is likely to spread if not addressed in candid
> terms):
>
>
> Many of you have no doubt set your filters against me following Candice
> Ward's innuendo-ridden post about the email virus. I have nothing to do
with
> such a virus; even if I were so malicious as to consider sending such a
> thing, I know nothing about viral computer codes and haven't the slightest
> notion how one would deliver them. But with this new aspersion, Ms. Ward
has
> succeeded in muddying the waters further and heating up the climate of
> paranoia at Poetryetc. And I would like to suggest, for your
consideration,
> that this is precisely what she needs to do so as to cover over acts of
> censorship and flagrant abuse that she can not defend with reason and
logic.
>
> What she cannot defend, or honestly explain, is exactly WHY I (and later
> Steve Duffy, who had the decency to allow me to defend myself in face of
the
> attacks) was removed a few days ago from the list. If you believe that all
> members of a poetry list, regardless of the popularity of their views or
> "styles" are entitled to fair treatment, due process (or *some* measure of
> it) before being expelled, and then entitled to candid explanation after
> suffering such consequences, then I ask that you momentarily put
> preconceptions aside and consider the following facts. I won't take long:
>
> 1) After I was placed on "Special Review" status by the moderators for
> expressing a desire to share (and with the author's permission) some
> interesting posts from another list, I sent in, through the kindness of
> Steve Duffy, a post explaining why I felt the moderators' action was
> unnecessary and unfair.
>
> 2) Shortly after this, I was removed from Poetryetc by Candice Ward. My
> first impression was that she had done so out of displeasure with my post,
> which had been sent briefly after she told the list that I was invited to
> post "anything under the sun," just so long as it did not involve an
> infringement of "copyright" which might compromise the integrity of the
list
> and of Jiscmail. I sent in a couple or three more posts of protest against
> Ms. Ward's act of censorship (again, through the kindness of Steve Duffy,
> who was soon himself to be vindictively expelled on a ludicrous and
> trumped-up charge of "personal abuse" against another list member).
>
> 3) Ms. Ward then revealed, to my surprise, that the post I had sent in
> under my "Special Review" status had nothing to do with my expulsion,
that,
> in fact, she had removed me from the list before the post actually
appeared.
> Her reason for doing so? That she had "received information" about my back
> channel "victimization" of another list member, and that, of course, such
> information was confidential and could not be revealed. [Was I sexually
> harrassing him or her? Was I threatening to harm his or her children? Was
I
> sending her or him e-mail viruses? Was I jabbering endlessly on about
> Yasusada? What was I doing?]
>
> Obviously, Ms. Ward's mysterious-sounding claim is, at best, hearsay, and
at
> worst, outright fabrication and slander. And for anyone who recognizes in
> such blatant innuendo the potential for arbitrary and deceitful abuse of
> power, it certainly cannot stand as justifiable reason for permanently
> silencing someone's voice. Ms. Ward knows this, and it is why she has been
> so busy the past couple of days trying to close off as many channels for
me
> as she can (my banning at Poetryetc, advising that filters be set,
> insinuating at three different listservs about possible virus's from me,
> requesting there be no more "bad mannered" forwarding of posts from me,
> urging no more cross-list discussion at New-Poetry list, etc.)
>
> 4) Because I have not the faintest notion what Ms. Ward could be
> alluding to in her "justification" for my disappearance from Poetryetc, I
> have, since she made these allegations and then promptly asked listees to
> move on to "the business of the list" (again, advising them, on more than
> one occasion, to set their filters against my e-mail), *emphatically*
> requested to the list moderators that these nefarious and "victimizing"
> e-mails I have supposedly sent to "someone" be publicly revealed. In other
> words, I have demanded that Ms. Ward's defamatory allegations be clarified
> and my *expulsion justified front channel*, via a posting of this material
> which supposedly justifies the moderators' censorious act against me. And
I
> have asked, most recently, since it is clear that such request is not to
be
> honored, that I at least be shown back-channel the text and headings of
the
> e-mails in question.
>
> Such a request is obviously reasonable, and that it has been met with
> complete silence leads me to conclude, as bizarre and disturbing as the
> conclusion may be, that the whole allegation is a libelous canard, created
> by Ms. Ward for the explicit purpose of carrying out a vindictive action
> against me-- one that, I can only surmise under the extraordinary
> circumstances, is guided by the desire to avenge the injury she and other
> present and former British Poets listserv members (a group, incidentally,
in
> which Alison Croggon, Ward's co-moderator, is included, though to be fair,
> Ms. Croggon has never acted with in-your-face malice) perceive was done to
> them by the Jacques Lacan/Jacques Debrot correspondence published at VeRT
> http://www.litvert.com
>
> 5) Steve Duffy said, before he was expelled by Ms. Ward, that if Poetryetc
> was going to be turned into a kind of "red-zoned" space, that he would
> appreciate having candor from the moderators that such was the case. The
> current situation shows, I feel, that such is, exactly, the case. I would
> suggest that those interested in the ideals of fairness, where difference
> and discussion can unfold in an atmosphere free from bureaucratic
> intimidation, where members can participate without the fear of being
> demonized with slurs and then silenced altogether, only to be further
> demonized with slurs-- I would suggest (if you will excuse this long
> sentence) that these individuals gather the courage and elemental
integrity
> to speak up and say something about the matter. To do so in no way would
> mean you are "aligned" with "me"; it would mean, only, that you are not
> aligned, as a matter of principle, with acts of blatant and vindictive
> censorship.
>
> Kent Johnson
>
>
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