🚀 go-pugleaf

For what it's worth, I was offended when I logged onto my e-mail
this morning and read Robert McElwaine's diatribe on abortion.
I don't recall a message requesting that SOS-DATA subscribers send
in their thoughts on abortion, so where this came from I don't know.
I was under the impression that this listserver was for exchange of
information, scholarly inquiry, etc.  along  the social science data
lines.

Although I found what he said to be interesting (I am pro-CHOICE and
was in Washington in April for the March), if Mr. McElwaine wanted to
share his views on abortion, he should have sent out a message inviting
listserve members to contact him directly.   This kind of uninvited
hectoring neither persuades nor converts.   I am sure Mr. McElwaine
would have felt the same way if I had sent out an unsolicited message
on my views on the Forestry Service's poor record in handling yew bark,
which contains taxol, proven effective in combatting ovarian cancer.
The point is, it's a personal message -- not scholarly -- and no one asked.

Maybe there should be a Hyde Park Listserver  (or Andy Warhol Listserver)
where we all get a chance to share those feelings that ignite us.