I am going to call once again for a cessation of ideological debate on
this list about this particular incident, the roots of terrorism, George
Bush's honesty, the reasonableness of past US actions, etc., etc. This
isn't a call for censorship or an attempt to silence anyone. Mr.
Einarsson and all others are free to express their opinions in any
number of venues. Every specialized list has limits on topics of debate,
and moderated lists are outright censored, in that sense. List members
accept this, or leave the list. We are a self-moderated list, so we must
impose limits ourselves. If every list becomes a venue for discussion of
every topic, there will not be progress on the topic the list is
supposedly devoted to. Topics as hot as Tuesday's events could lead to
endless, emotional debate. I sure have my own very strong opinions, that
I would love to share, about every aspect of the terrorist attack, but
I'm not broadcasting them on a grammar-teaching list.
I know that politics and ideology infuse academia, and where that is
related to the discipline, it makes perfect sense. Marxist vs. other
interpretations of literature are valid debates, _in literary venues_. I
have trouble connecting terrorism and this incident with grammar
pedagogy and even the ideology of education, which we have
(appropriately, I think) discussed in the past.
We all have strong feelings about what happened this week, and we want
to express those feelings, but there are more appropriate venues. There
are lists where, perhaps, the rules of civil debate are more lax, and
people not only openly disagree about interpretations of history and
particular incidents like this, but even trade insults. Being told to
shut up and mind my own business does not encourage me to paricipate in
any kind of exchange, nor does it persuade me to the point of view being
promoted by the issuer of these demands. In fact, it only encourages me
to delete postings from such people unread.
Don't we have enough disagreement among us about grammar teaching
without further muddling things with at best remotely related topics?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184 • Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone. 756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] • Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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