As of today, at Least for a While - Brooklyn Quaker will screen comments on this blog.
Friends,
I just added the following comment to my most recent post, and then thought it might be a good idea to also make it a post of its own.
Friends,
I've decided to implement moderation on my blog's comments, at least for awhile. I will review each comment before it appears in order to keep the discussion on topic and - I hope - to keep it civil and respectful.
It may sometimes take me awhile to review comments. I apologize if this is frustrating. If for any reason I decide not to post a given comment I will try to explain why to the commenter. (Provided that I am able to do so that is - I'm not yet experienced in how the moderation system on blogger works).
- - Peace and Friendship,
Rich
I just added the following comment to my most recent post, and then thought it might be a good idea to also make it a post of its own.
Friends,
I've decided to implement moderation on my blog's comments, at least for awhile. I will review each comment before it appears in order to keep the discussion on topic and - I hope - to keep it civil and respectful.
It may sometimes take me awhile to review comments. I apologize if this is frustrating. If for any reason I decide not to post a given comment I will try to explain why to the commenter. (Provided that I am able to do so that is - I'm not yet experienced in how the moderation system on blogger works).
- - Peace and Friendship,
Rich
posted by Rich in Brooklyn at Monday, December 15, 2008
5 Comments:
I think moderation is a good idea, at least for a while, and I am optimistic that Rich will do it well.
I also think the subject we were discussing is an important one. I think there is a tendency among liberal Quakers to use language in ways that can be misleading, whether they think of it that way or not. If there had been an appropriate opportunity, I would have posted excerpts from a rather long brouhaha on a very liberal British list, Quaker-B, to show examples of what I had been reading just before Rich posted his leaflet. There is some idea (I don't say Rich holds it) that it helps Friends relate to people of more traditional beliefs if they use the same words, while defining them differently. It would be hard to say to what extent this is conscious dishonesty and to what extent some Friends are just doing what they see other Friends doing and accepting the rationales that are offered. The intensity of my reaction has to do with my having seen a great deal of this (starting 40 years ago but continuing right up to the week before Rich posted his leaflet) and finding that it wrecks communication. I really would like to explore this issue with Rich.
Licia Kuenning
Farmington/Quaker Heritage Press
licia@qhpress.org
http://www.qhpress.org
http://www.megalink.net/~klee
"All my cats are in one basket."
I agree with the spirit of comment moderation. After all, *anyone* can get their own blog and post anything they want there. Your blog is your space, and commenting can often lead to insightful, productive discussions or meaningful diversions.
But in your space, the character of conversation is your decision. If other people have different expectations, they can host those kinds of conversations on their own blog.
There's no reason why the whole conversation needs to take place on one blog. Appending links that extend the conversation in meaningful ways is another way you can make the Internet more wonderful, without compromising the integrity of your own content.
Rich,
I understand your reaction and trust you will continue to blog. I appreciate your writings a great deal.
I wish all of you a merry Christmas.
Licia
I've posted the Christmas section of Farmington! Farmington! on various forums, but not on this one, so I thought I'd do that today.
___________________________________________
I do not know who originally laid out the Farmington town line, but they probably did not anticipate that anyone would want to string Christmas-tree lights around it.
Nevertheless such lights, all of them white, had been strung systematically, following the town line as precisely as David Ford and his companions were able, between June 13 and 15. They had even run the cord across Clearwater Lake, suspending it from makeshift poles, to mark where that pond's waters became Farmington waters instead of Industry waters.
On December 23, at the sole initiative of David and his roommate Saul, the town-line lights were replaced with red, blue, yellow, orange, and green bulbs, in honor of the season.
Kathy Lee, observing the decoration, thought it pretty. She was too much of a Quaker to have proposed the alteration herself--besides being aware that Jesus had probably not been born in December--but she decided that like Hallowe'en, Christmas had come to mean something more than a "holiday."
UMF put up its traditional Christmas tree; and stores downtown decorated their windows without quite as much emphasis on Santa Claus as in previous years--though a rather attractive portrait of Saint Nick appeared in the window of Devaney, Doak & Garrett.
The WalMart on Routes 2 & 4 had disappeared. Nobody was sure just what had happened to it; but an Ames department store and an OfficeMax had appeared in its place, and the parking lot, though reduced in area by the mountains of snow around its edges, was a bit less congested. Ames too decorated for Christmas and sold the usual array of colored balls, wreaths, light bulbs, and more creative tree ornaments.
Nicholas of Myra wandered up Main St., thinking that Farmington was a very beautiful town, where there were no beggars for him to give coins to--which was just as well, as he had not brought any with him. He would not find any children sold into slavery, any women unable to marry for lack of a dowry, or even any prisoners--so his former works of beneficence would be unnecessary here. But although he had never learned English (a language which did not exist in his time), he somehow understood what people said.
One expression which he heard repeatedly but did not understand was, "Merry Christmas!" What was Christmas? This fourth-century saint did not know. Nor did he recognize his portrait in the window of Devaney Doak when, having turned up Broadway, he saw it there--for although it looked a bit more like him than the typical Santa Claus, the resemblance was of course not very close, and his name was not on it.
Nicholas would not even have known that "Saint" was part of his name.
So he was surprised when someone greeted him in his native Greek--even pronouncing his name correctly, which is more than I could do. It was Kathy Lee.
She invited him to Christmas dinner at Lewis Bender's house--which was very large due to his having assumed proprietorship of the large theological library housed in what used to be the MBNA building on Main St. Part of the building was unsuited for library stacks, so that area had been turned into a banquet hall for special occasions.
No telemarketers called to interrupt the feast. And although Nicholas still wasn't sure what Christmas was, they all had a merry one.
___________________________________
Licia K
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