George:

I would not have thought -- until I read your e-mails today with some amazement -- that Terri DiCintio's comments would elicit ad hominem attacks. Obviously, Brendan Ferreri-Hanberry does not know Terri, or, apparently, vice versa. If he did, he would know how off-base his comments were. Similarly, Uriah Fields' comments show that he does not know Terri, or he would not have made the gratuitous comments about how she should be complaining to George W. Bush. He particularly would not have assumed that she would assume that it would be liberals who would be using profanity.

I know Terri DiCintio, I know Uriah Fields, and I have met Brendan Ferreri-Hanberry (though some years ago, when his brother and my son were good friends). If the three of them were in the same place, face to face, talking about issues, they would probably find that they agree on almost everything political. One distressing trend with e-mails -- which they share with the Free Speech chalkboard -- is that all speech is deprived of the speaker-to-hearer link. The thoughts are just sent out, either into the ether or onto the chalkboard, and the speaker will not have to look in the eyes of the hearer and receive the hearer's reaction. It is important to distinguish in this context between speech -- which this board and the chalkboard are -- and communication, which is what happens when people are face to face. I would hazard a guess that if Terri, Uriah and Brendan were face to face, their speech to one another would be very much different from the flaming e-mails we have seen today.

Lloyd Snook (electronic mail, May 24, 2005)