IN regard to Linda Smaltz's reply to my post about Carol Eddington's book.
I don't think there's an inconsistency in what I said then and what I'm
saying now. Maybe somebody more perceptive than I can point it out to me.
I don't spend my time on Google ferreting out the skid marks on people's
underwear. I just have better things to do. It's a rather unusual way to
nurture and develop a talent for digging dirt - from farming to this -- but
whatever floats your boat. Just not here, please.
I am focused only on whether the information in the document Carole produced
can be useful to people.
I am sickened to see Carole attacked. I am dismayed to see the efforts of
so many dismissed in oneliners as if their efforts can be reduced to sound
bites and brushed away like an irritating mosquito. I am sickened to be
smeared and wrongly attacked as having "never" made tea. Why is this list a
receptacle for such ugliness?
Linda's posts remind me of an infamous Soviet spymaster who said: "Show me
the person and I'll show you the case." In other words, a little character
assassination can render the noblest of intentions and the most passionate
of caring people into a tiny pile of odoriferous crap, all with a deft turn
of phrase, some innuendo and insinuation, and a willing populace who doesn't
think critically. One whisper can go a long way.
It is not the facts I dispute from Linda -- it is the sh*t-smeared lenses of
the glasses she uses to look at those facts.
All that matters is to me -- and the only thing I am defending on this
list -- is whether the information in the document is helpful to people who
want to brew tea and advance in their use of it. The landscaper, vineyard
grower, gardener or farmer's problems -- how to use less chemicals, how to
keep their families healthy, how to keep the environment clean -- are
important enough that if a former prostitute edits some useful information
and makes it available to them, and it helps them do so, then I say so be
it -- keep focused and get what you came here for. Don't get sidetracked.
This is exactly the kind of smear tactic the far right uses to attack any
number of environmental causes, by the way, and it is not unheard of for
such real or assumed-name people to appear on lists, write letters to the
editor and so on. Who exactly is Linda Smaltz? She claims to be from
Fargo, ND, but a five-minute search of the online white pages reveals no one
under that name living there. Fairness demands more than a five minute
search, but somebody else will have to do it.
I look forward to the day when university research can and does clarify
everything related to tea, and I would love to have people posting data
packed factual information. Until then, if I want to continue brewing tea,
the person who consistently and generously posts explanations and says what
appears to be the case is Elaine Ingham. It is also legitimate to decide
that a person does not want to brew tea until conditions are different.
Each makes up his/her own mind on this.
>From my point of view, in order to evaluate whether and to what extent "tea"
is viable for use in my landscaping practice, my starting point is Elaine's
information and my own testing/record keeping/observations, which I will use
to either confirm or not whether what Elaine says/observes, asserts matches
my experience, plus the people with whom I exchange information and compare
notes offline.
At a certain point, one must decide whether there is benefit to belonging to
an unmoderated group where there is no consequence for personal attacks is
permitted. I find the baiting, the smearing, and the intolerance sickening
and deplorable. There's a way to do everything - constructively or maxing
out the unconstructive approach.
Allowing people who have mastered the black art of personal attack to be on
this list brings down the other 500 people who presumably are here to learn
about tea. Enough already.
Jeff, I have asked you privately on several occasions to reign in the
incivility and the last time I asked, you didn't even do me the courtesy of
replying to my request. If you are checking your mail and paying attention
to what is happening, then you will know I am asking you to do so publicly.
Chris Reid
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Received on Thu Mar 11 2004 - 16:14:02 EST