Re: [pct-l] lack of manners

[Arkay7@aol.com]

While all the recent bickering and wit-battling has been most entertaining, I
can't help but think that some hiker enemy - horse-rider, senator, or real
estate developer - has infiltrated this list and spread some sort of virus
that turns us all against each other. This must be it, because I simply cannot
fathom how or why the relevant members of this list insist on spitting acid at
each other and have the rest of us watch. For the love of all that's holy,
take your personal disputes off the list and carry on to your heart's content
somewhere where the rest of us don't have to be privy to them. I certainly
don't mind intellectually based discussions on bear cans or stoves or
whatever, but when I start seeing stars substituting for letters and purely
malignant debasements of people's opinions, backgrounds, and tastes filling my
mailbox like junkmail, I start to wonder whether the love I've fostered for
backpacking must be compromised by all of the unnecessary and pointless
attacks I keep seeing among my fellow so-called backpacking aficionados. If
there's one haven from the citified superficialities that I see around me
every day, it ought to be among others who have seen the same beauty in nature
as I have, and have sensed the spirit and soul of forests, fields, and skies
that so many of miss or take for granted. I joined this list because I wanted
to be surrounded by such people. Instead, I see little more than a reflection
of festering loathing that represents everything we try to get away from when
our feet hit the trail. 

I just started backpacking very recently, and I'm in my early twenties.... you
people are supposed to be setting an example for me and other hiking neophytes
who need guidance and advice. And all you guys are doing is bumming me out. Oh
well. I guess you can't keep life's crap out forever. 

Screw it, I'm going hiking.

Keep on keepin' on,
Ryel
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