Chaya

[Guest guest]

Dear Lynn,

During my college years in the 60's I roomed with a member of a radical anti-War

group. From countless arguments with her and others and from my own years of

participation in the anti-War movement, I learned a lot about the pros and cons

of radical fanaticism and I became very familiar with how its " voice " sounds.

I never forgot it, just as I never forgot that without the early leadership of

groups like SDS and SNCC, the anti-War movement almost certainly wouldn't have

happened.

They kept us informed about things we didn't know and didn't want to hear. But

we paid a huge price for their leadership; we lost the good will of much of the

nation.

Why mention this in a note about ? Because when I read her first posts on

ACOR back in the early 2000's, I recognized the " voice. " In addition to

brilliance, had a persistent anti-authority, anti-establishment bias that

sounded too much like that " other voice. " My ears perked up.

Not all people who are radically fanatic about something are biased to the same

degree—but its presence alerts me to two things:

1: there will likely be valuable information I might not get from anywhere

else, and

2: there will likely be exaggeration and distortion and the conclusions may be

biased and therefore either a little or a lot unreliable

When broke away from Grannybarb's list to have her own forum, I wasn't

surprised. And so what?

So not too much, except as Arnold points out, she and the CLL community may be

paying a price for those biases and we should at least be aware of them as we

read and learn from her. Much like chemotherapy, they make an invaluable

contribution to the world of CLL. And like chemo, I hope the price is not too

high and I hope someday we can get along with a lot less of it.

-Ellen D.