Hey, Justin, it's really a quite simple rule I learned on how to navigate the culture here: just give what you receive. Some folks just can't pass up an opportunity to make gratuitous personal insults, like school yard bullies, and I find that the best way to handle that is to give it right back. If you want to dish it out, then get ready to take it. If you don't use up my bandwidth picking fights, you won't get your bandwidth taken up with me responding. I didn't pick this fight with Kelley, just responded to her need to make gratuitous insults in the form commentary on a post that I sent along to share something humorous, and I didn't take a swing at you, I am just responding to your inability to walk by without getting in your licks. On the other hand, when folks are engaged in serious, interesting exchanges, it is all too easy to participate in a respectful, friendly way -- despite political differences.
Hey, the old book isn't all wrong: as you sow, so shall you reap.
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. -- Frederick Douglass --
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