The listmothers continue to receive many e-mails from subscribers inside and
outside the US, mostly enthusiastically supporting the cancelling of Mr.
Tony Knox's subscription to Lactnet.

A few have expressed concern that it was his opinions themselves which led
to our reaction.  We want to put that to rest most emphatically.  It was his
grossly insensitive way of stating them, in disregard of the expressed
purpose of Lactnet, which caused us to cancel his subscription.  We did not
derive pleasure from doing so.

If Mr. Knox chooses to share his story of being summarily ushered out of our
living room, non-subscribers may search the archives and find his posts, and
this post, and I hope to reassure any such people that Lactnet is not a
totalitarian list with low tolerance for differences of opinion.

Neither is Lactnet a *totally* public forum.  It is our virtual living room.
We will vigorously defend Mr.Knox's and anyone else's right to air whatever
opinions they have, outside our living room, but once anyone comes inside,
the rules of etiquette and of Lactnet apply.  It was his demonstrated
inability to post in accordance with these, on this occasion and in a
previous episode last summer, which as some of you surely recall, diverted
much energy away from the purpose of Lactnet, which led us to choose the
ounce of prevention over the pound of cure.

The US war effort in Afghanistan is one of many issues with the potential to
divide us, and to what end?  Who among us will be the better for it if we
lose Lactnet?  That is why we see a need to remind everyone that this is an
international list, to which anyone may subscribe, and there are subscribers
with strong commitments to helping children be breastfed who have very
different opinions on nearly everything else.  We have had many fruitful
exchanges of opinions before, without floods of anguished mail to the list
and to the listmothers, from people who are horrified at the tone of one
particular subscriber.  This time was strikingly different.  People who
support his opinions were as revolted as people who vehemently disagree.  It
wasn't the opinions that were the problem!

No one is objecting to people sharing personal stories of how they are
touched by momentous world events, in connection with posts to this list,
and indeed we have been very moved to learn how much comfort the focused
nature of Lactnet has brought to people in many places.  The objections come
when irrelevant nationalism creeps in, as we are being reminded by
subscribers from several countries, the US included, that not everyone sees
things from the perspective of the Oval Office, to name one example.  Should
that surprise us?

So we will do what we can to keep Lactnet going in its tradition of
hospitality and plain old good manners.  The occasional blooper is
tolerated, of course, most of us have at least one glass-walled room in our
virtual houses and none of us can afford to throw stones!

Sincerely
the listmothers

PS If a previously excluded subscriber resubscribes under a different name,
the only way we would know it is if they start acting out so we recognize
their modus operandi.  If they never act out, we won't react.  OK?

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