Re: Percy-L Manager Request

Henry P. Mills (wpercy1@sunsite.unc.edu)
Thu, 22 May 1997 11:48:35 -0500

Jim,

Donavan is on research leave at present where he is busily conducting High
Energy Physics experiments at another university, so I am afraid he is a
bit "abstracted" at the present. I hope to send him a very big dose of
Percy in the near future to ease his "re-entry" into the realm of the
"everyday" when he returns from his orbit.

Your below message has been received and read and will be considered
further by the Percy-L committee. In the meantime, I ask that any
additonal comments from any corners on the below topics be sent directly to
either Donavan (dhall@rouge.phys.lsu.edu) or me rather than through
Percy-L.

As outlined in the Percy-L guidelines "patience and tolerance are
encouraged in all matters related to the mailing list, for electronic
discussion of this sort is fraught with the potential for misunderstanding,
even as it provides for new and liberated channels of discourse."

This is not to suggest that you or anyone else has been impatient or
intolerant, but merely to affirm that the we ourselves are very much a part
of an "experiment" too, namely the "Percy-L experiment". Be that as it all
may, let the Percy discussion continue...

Henry Mills
wpercy1@sunsite.unc.edu

>Dear Donovan....
>
>Your note re: requests to leave the list that have been posted to you raises
>some concerns in my mind about the future viability of the list. If you have
>been reading the list's posting, you will find, I believe that the requests
>to leave have followed an exchange between Mr. Manier and Mr. Toth.
>
>While I realize that my own personal past experience with Mr. Manier may
>color my perception, I should like to say that I think that his continued
>presence on the board will inevitably compromise its membership by driving
>away those who do not share his views (which seem to me contemptuous of Percy
>and of those who find Percy's work useful in a a literary or philosophical or
>theological context). You said to me in one of your posts that you and Mr.
>Manier had reached an agreement that he should leave the list. Shortly
>afterward, he reappeared with his contest and $300 donation to the percy
>project at UNU.
>
>I have had two or three persons say to me in personal notes that they fear
>that the acerbic and adversarial manner of Mr. Manier's posts to those with
>whom he disagrees will serve to drive away from Percy-L some persons and mute
>the participation of others.
>
>As the owner of the list, you are free to do as you like with the issue of
>membership and participation. I believe, however, that you really would like
>to have the list serve as a useful venue for discussion of issues related to
>Percy's work for academicians and laypersons alike....a worthy goal, given
>Percy's own decision to work in the public arena for the things he believed
>in. I think that unless Mr. Manier's posts better reflect the goals and
>purposes of the listowner you will find his membership has suborned your
>efforts.
>
>Jim Woods