#5349: Re: #5326: Dorce on reconsidered post to Simidor (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 10/18/2000 10:18:14 AM Pacific Daylight Time, XXXXXXX 
writes:

<< I've been unhappy with the List lately too -- all the freshness and 
innocence 
 is gone now. There is some rehashing of things as new people enter, but 
 everything has been said, I think, and more words will make no difference at 
 all. I feel like someone watching a disaster, and turn my eyes away in shame 
 and horror. >>
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
My friends, I have been listening to criticism of the tone and content on 
this list for the past month or so with sadness.  Haiti isn't sweetness and 
light right now.  We can't fiddle while Rome burns.  It is impossible to 
delight in flights of fancy while Haiti sinks further into the abyss.  We are 
polarized because Haiti is polarized.  We despair because Haiti despairs.  We 
on the list are reflecting the chaos and disarray that is Haiti.  We rehash 
because we must......THERE IS NO INNOCENCE AND FRESHNESS IN HAITI so how can 
there be here?  I disagree that we talk in vain though.  This is a very 
difficult and troubled time for Haiti.  We want instant change and that can't 
be.  Haiti is in transition and it is delicate and fragile.  Without 
vigilance, it can slide back to what it was.  Too many good people have died 
so that that wouldn't happen. So we can take a little unpleasantness on the 
list I think.  The worst thing we can do is lose hope; if they can keep it 
alive in Haiti, we can do no less here.  I end with a quote from a favorite 
book (Dune): 

"Hope can be the greatest weapon of a downtrodden people, or the greatest 
enemy of those who are about to fail."  

Dorce~ never give up, never, never, never