[Winona Online Democracy]
For the record, I meant only to clarify what I thought was David's
position, not express it as my own. (If I misrepresented his intent, I
apologize to him.) I had hoped to explicate and defend his choice of
rhetorical tool (literary allusion) rather than echo his sentiments
regarding list moderation/municipal leaders.
-Spencer Madsen
Kathy Seifert wrote:
[Winona Online Democracy]
If Spencer's statement is accurate, "our rules may seem unclear and
arbitrary, in both _expression_ and enforcement," how do we assess this and
what might the remedies be?
>From my end it is hard for me to accept that an assessment that the rules
are "arbitrarily enforced" has nothing to do with me personally, since I am
the one who makes that call for our forum. I've been reading a lot of
messages from folks who are unhappy about my judgement from those who
believe that the discussion should be literally moderated (edited before
being sent to the members) to those like Spencer or David who seem to
conclude that my efforts to facilitate are analagous to the world of
Orwell's 1984.
My suggestion to "vote" (maybe to engage in a consensus process would be
better?) as to whether or not David's statement should be judged as a
personal attack was an attempt to share responsibility for making that
judgement call given my lack of objectivity as the subject of the message.
Spencer seems to have expressed his disagreement with that as a solution.
As a group, how can we decide how to address such issues? As the
facilitator, I go back to re-read the rules and my archived responses to
members in order to gain perspective and act consistently. I am happy to
share the facilitator role with another individual in order to assist with
these judgement calls, but I don't think it is constructive for me to change
my standards each time a member disagrees with my judgement. That would,
indeed, be arbitrary enforcement.
I am happy to take cues from the membership as to how to address the issue
of rule enforcement, but I think it is wise that the membership define the
process for establishing the procedures. Isn't that the democratic thing to
do?
Kathy Seifert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Spencer Madsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Online Democracy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: [Winona] Re: The Never Ending Rules Debate
[Winona Online Democracy]
Kathy Seifert wrote:
My stance is that we must strive to be able to express a diversity of
opinion
without attacking those with whom we disagree.
David's use of the phrase: "Big Brother is your friend. Big Brother has
the
answers. 1984" seems to be reference to my actions as some sort of
thought
control. I experience it as a personal attack. I can hardly be
objective
in this matter, though. I'm entertaining the idea of putting it to a
vote.
What do others think?
Kathy Seifert
If one chooses to view David's words as an personal attack, one
obviously may. I'm not certain a vote would accomplish anything.
I choose to see David's allegory for what I think he intended: The
situation here parallels the world of 1984 in that our rules may seem
unclear and arbitrary, in both _expression_ and enforcement, and we are
encouraged to accept that the leadership knows best based on little more
than leadership's repeated assurances of the same.
Given that his frustration with the alternate side of the street parking
signs echoed these sentiments, I'm fairly confident this doesn't have
anything to do with Kathy as a person, no matter how many of us vote to
take a vote on it.
-Spencer Madsen
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