Hi Roy;
The word Moderator does kinda stick out there like a warning sign or something, just sitting right there under my name.
I tend to think that, in addition to being just another club member, as moderator I represent both the club members as a whole and Alembic, particularly Susan and Mica. As has been mentioned, I do not represent Alembic legally or contractually; I am just another club member. But it seems reasonable to think that people are going to see that word Moderator under my name and are going to assume some kind of association.
As has been mentioned in this forum before, communication by means of posting messages to internet discussion groups can be problematic. In a face to face discussion one gets visual and aural cues from facial expressions, hand gestures, the rise and fall of voice pitch, etc. And even with these aids, there are still frequent miscommunications. These clues are not present in posted messages and thus the chances of miscommunication are increased. Therefore, the comments you made that were directed specifically toward me in the Bike Week thread were taken by me as understandable. People do not read things the same way. What one person intends to convey in a post can easily be interpreted differently by another. We do not write in isolation; the other things that are happening around our lives have an effect on what we write and how we interpret what others write. When a car is weaving in and out of traffic in a seemingly irresponsible manner, we may think the driver is a selfish jerk who does not consider the other drivers around him. On the other hand, it may be that he is rushing to the hospital and his thoughts are so focused on some loved one that he is not giving his driving the attention that he should. The point here is that we just don't know where someone else is in life; we can't know the overall context of someone else's remarks in a message posted on the internet. Thus I accepted the remarks you made toward me, as I understood that it was highly possible that your interpretation of what I read may not have been the meaning that I intended. And then of course you may have just disagreed with what I wrote, which is fine; people understandably do not agree on things.
However, as a club member I am saddened when the harmony of our group begins to become discordant. And as moderator, representing the group as a whole, I do feel that it is to some degree my role to help smooth things out when such discord occurs. And as moderator, representing Alembic, I do want to help maintain an atmosphere that reflects positively upon the Wickersham family and their employees. In this particular case, because I was seemingly the initial cause of the discord, I felt, perhaps incorrectly, that any response I might have made as moderator could very well serve to exacerbate the situation. Therefore, having accepted your remarks as your position on the matter, I thought it best not to respond further.
Life is interesting; it's certainly a challenge. Each of us is where we are right now; we can't be anywhere or anybody else. Given that, I tend to think that a reasonable course is to accept that fact with an open heart as it pertains to me and as it pertains to everyone else, and move forward. What we say and do effects others, and then having been thus affected, the subsequent actions of those others then effects still others, and so on exponentially. When I awoke this morning, one of the first things I did was read the news, and the news from the Middle East was very sad indeed. How we treat our fellow humans does have an effect. And we can choose how we we will treat our fellow humans. And we can choose to treat our fellow humans with respect, understanding, and compassion. It has an effect, the effect is exponential, and it will be an effect on the world in which our children and grandchildren will live.
So, I guess all of this is to say here we are, now lets move forward. We've all had the opportunity to learn some interesting things about communication over the past few days. And now we get to choose how we will make use of our newly gained knowledge.
