Hi Rebecca,
well I am extremely sorry. I do thank you for your clear apology. I do not
thank you for unsubscribing, but i understand the moment. I hope that this
will be a moment for moving forwards, for everyone. However I do concur with
the thought that this has of late been too hostile an environment. I did not
ask you to leave, nor want that one bit. That this list is unsafe for women
posters, in particular, is about as bad as it could get. I don't think that
is true in general, but taken together with Liz's deliberate retreat into
the shadows I am genuinely chastised by that. About a year ago when
ELizabeth neede to concentrate fully on another responsibility we (she,
Trevor and myself) tried to find another woman to be a co-listowner and
coudn't persuade anyone to take it on. Hopefully that time will be coming
sooner. But at moments such as this its plainly not a fun position to be in.
I didn't want you to leave at all. I simply wanted to find some way to reign
in the rancour. i was obviously too slow and too late in doing so. Sometimes
those out of hand moments occur through being away from the list for a few
days.
But really that is a poor excuse. That your departure results from my poor
handling is an abject [sic] lesson for me. in Trevor's absence I feel that
I've let everybody down.
In my experience these e-list wrangles can invade one's life quite harshly.
Partly it is the lag between messages. I steel myself to write a response,
feel energised by the act of posting and then fall into despair when another
perhaps even more pressing reply comes back six hours or a day or two days
later. So I understand the debilitation involved. For my part I have also
felt a particular kind of embarrassment at being called out on a list and
found my own turns of phrase wanting.
I hope that you will come back after a brief sojourn getting on with what
this stuff seems to displace so many of us so frequently from getting done.
You will be welcome here any time. Perhaps by then the times will have
changed.
love and love
cris
|