The recent spate of heated postings back and forth, while sad, still offers us some lessons. No viewpoint is so sacrosanct that it should go unchallenged. Sometimes what we hold might not be the best. The testing process via which we would separate the chaff from the grain is not always a painless one.

The only part that was saddening was that instead of ideas being subject to intense scrutiny, there has been much name-calling. What amazes me is that so many obviously intelligent, passionate, and seemingly well-meaning people have ignored the important ingredient in public discourse: civility.

To give civility in return to that which is proffered is easy. But, how noble it was to see some [too few, i dare say] who continued to maintain civility even under adverse conditions. for this they were ridiculed as being less passionate or whatever. again, personalities were the focus not issues and ideas.

It is still more intriguing to me that we cannot tolerate any questioning of what we believe in. Yet we want to be tolerated by a larger society that is either ignorant or apathetic or even violent towards us and our concerns. We cannot demand respect, we have to command it.

Surely, passions do tend to make us say harsh things. The beauty of the medium here is that it allows us the luxury of cooling down and then responding. That has not been taken away by the instantaneousness of the cybernetic medium. We seem to have voluntarily surrendered it.

If we cannot tolerate people voicing opinions or ideas which we find unpalatable or unacceptable or just plain wrong, why don't we try and educate them? Why don't we try to fight the ignorance rather than the individual? How do we educate ourselves if all we ever hear are sympathetic, empathic, and agreeable things? If khush-space be a microcosm of the general cultural space in which we are, we must surely expect to find among us those who will disagree with us and vice versa. I find this space the richer for the banurekhas, the tims, the yassirs, and the myriad others.

I don't always agree with everything they have to say, but this i do admire in them: their passion for what they believe in. i will say that i do find that when i see *anyone* attacking an individual and refusing to educate one another, i am most saddened.

If i could plead one thing, it would be this: by all means let us all disagree and agree as we believe, but let us maintain our diversity and unity. in these lie our strength, our fun, our power.

When channeled through kindness, we will be formidable indeed.

Then, who would dare oppress us? who would dare be unkind to us?

I believe that such is the space we should have here. Where all breezes will be free to blow, but where none will carry us off our feet, to paraphrase M. K. Gandhi.

-- Chandra.