Why Participate
I've followed this list for a good many days --
And now for a question which sore puzzles me --
June 20, 2000
watched its quiet and rowdy and tedious ways.
It shows its best side (in my humble surmise)
when engaged in debate energetic and wise.
For I've always maintained Henry loved a good match
and could counter a statement with lively dispatch.
Yet he never let dispute impede his regard
for the friends and philosophers at his dooryard.
It behooves us to follow his model today,
to respect and consider what each has to say.
For our strength will be measured by how we uphold
the side of the opposing view to be told.
isn't "Fundamentalist Thoreauvian" a dichotomy? ;-)
Copyright © Amy Belding Brown