[pct-l] O.d. COYOTE....Slackpacking the O.d. Coyote way.

[Greg Kesselring]

Hi Jim,

I agree with much of what you've written, many of these things needed to 
be said IMHO, and I appreciate your taking the time to write it all down 
and send it to us.  However, I want to again point out the difference 
between disagreeing with someone in a respectful way on the one hand, 
versus "character assassination" on the other. (Yeah, I guess I'm trying 
say that my way of arguing is better than somebody else's way, so I'm 
not following HYOH principles when it comes to arguments--I'm trying to 
get everyone to argue my way! But maybe some of what I have to say will 
be useful...  I'm mainly trying to say that there's a respectful way to 
treat each other and a hurtful way.  I for one hope I will always choose 
the respectful way.)

To me, character assassination goes something like this:  Someone says 
something to me that I disagree with.  Instead of discussing the points 
of that topic and pointing out where and why I disagree with him, I end 
up making statements that attempt to ridicule the person, or question 
his intelligence or character, or belittle the person, or shame the person.

Here are some examples from recent posts.  I've chosen some from both 
sides, so you can see that it goes both ways.

"It appears you seem to be suffering from selective memory as 
well.....very common with older folks."   <--- insulting the person's 
intelligence and ridiculing his age, or attempting to make him 
insignificant because of his age

"Since he's a lot smarter than you, maybe you should pay more attention 
to him. "  <---- insulting the person's intelligence instead of sticking 
to the topic being discussed

"But you know O.d., some folks don't get wiser as they get older they just get older and never see the light. I suspect you may be part of the later group."  <---- criticizing the person's intelligence instead of sticking to the topic being discussed.



Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in favor of discussing things--even 
arguing about things--that we disagree about.  But my hope is that we 
could maintain some kind of respect towards each other.  Treat each 
other with kindness even.

I have a lot of respect for speed hikers as well as for slow hikers. I 
love covering a lot of ground in one day, and I also love going slow or 
even just sitting and staring and drinking in the beauty of a place.  I 
have a lot of respect and admiration for ALL hikers.  We are one little 
piece of sanity in a world gone crazy for power, for money, for things.  
We know in our bones the value of deep connection with our Mother Earth 
and with each other.  I hope we can remember that we have more in common 
than we have differences when we get into heated arguments with each 
other.  We're of the same tribe, sure we can disagree, but I have hope 
that we can love each other in the process.  Or at least treat each 
other with respect and kindness.

One last point:  I ain't no saint.  These things are things that I 
aspire to, but don't always succeed at.  When I fail, I hope I can admit 
it and ask for forgiveness.  And forgiveness is something that I hope to 
be able to offer to those in my life who sometimes do hurtful things but 
then see what they've done and ask to be forgiven.  

Peace,

Greg

=================================================================



Jim and/or Ginny Owen wrote:
> Reinhold Metzger wrote:
>> > Ooohhh,  what an awful two week.....first come the fires... then comes
>> O.d.Coyote.
>> > It's like getting hit by a motorcycle and then get run over by a 
>> truck.
>> > I usually do not respond to posts like O.d Coyote's nasty Oct. 21 
>> post,
>> but this is character
>> > assasination and needs responding.
>
.............