We were having a nice conversation on this list called 'a quiet time'. . . and then Paul posted a couple of nasty phrases that stung me.
He wrote derisively about 'extreme individualism', making it feel to me, in a very ugly way, that he does not think it is okay for people to try to get their needs met. His derisive portrayal of examples of individuality as 'extreme individualism' left me thinking that he might not be a professional designer of human gatherings. . . at least not one with the value of inclusion. In the same nasty note, Paul portrayed a woman that Birgitt told us about as 'clearly mentally unstable." Ouch. That one seems even uglier. Who among us has never popped off, expressing anger in a less than optimal manner? It might not matter to most on this list but I do have a mental health disability and I am fed up with being made to feel like I have to tolerate ignorant, bigoted statements about the mentally ill. Like most bigotry, these kinds of statements usually stem from the speaker's lack of knowledge about what they are talking about. I have made a personal commitment to point out bigotry when I see it and I believe Paul's nasty comment of 'clearly mentally unstable' was bigotry. I know 'most people' routinely tolerate bigoted generalizaitons about people with mental health disabilities and when they do tolerate such bigotry, I always wonder why. why would anyone think people with mental health disabilities did not deserve the same absence of bigotry as anyone else? Sorry to bother the list with this but Paul's statements were, for me, shockingly offensive. * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
