Political threads

[Mrs Mungo]

Susan,

As a long time volunteer in a variety of settings, it's just like the old saying-no good deed goes unpunished. I would like to think we're all adults here and can handle logical and reasonable debate. But, events such as the one you describe prove me wrong. I read TWTM when my eldest was 4 years old. She's 12 now. I think we've purchased every book PHP has put out (we did not pre-order the writing program, too much going on at the moment), I even have 2 book bags and a coffee mug. But disallowing political debate on the board isn't going to stop my purchases. Do what you need to do to protect your business.

 

My personal moment of zen (as John Stewart would say) as a volunteer? When I was serving (one of many times) as a family readiness group leader I was running a huge project sending a gift downrange to our soldiers. I sent out probably over a hundred emails about it over the course of a couple of months. At the FRG meeting where we unveiled the gift a woman *complained* to me (and she was complaining) that she didn't know about it ahead of time because she had been deleting my emails without reading them. This was somehow my fault. :confused:

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

First, I haven't taken the time to read all the responses...

 

With that said, I think you should keep the political discussion. Not because the purpose of this board is to discuss politics but rather because we, as a group, are likely to be issue voters on at least one issue in common-homeschooling. As such, it is probably necessary to allow the community to discuss homeschooling and the implications of voting choices at every level from local judges to state representatives to the president. However, it is unlikely that any moderator has the time to weed out which discussions are valid for homeschooling and which have strayed off track. Thus, it becomes necessary to allow all political discussion. It is a shame that there cannot be a separate board for such issues because that could be useful year 'round for discussion of changing homeschool laws in various states or how to comply with local regulations, etc.

 

In the mean time I will plan on using my internal ignore button when necessary and choose not to read threads that may not interest me. If they do interest me I will attempt to use my own internal editor as necessary.

 

If I am repeating the thoughts of any previous posts then we must find ourselves in agreement. As I said above-too many posts to read tonight.

[cricket1178]

I try not to participate in political threads, but I enjoy reading the views of others. Politics is a hot button issue, but there are other issues I'd consider hot buttons as well. If they are all banned, wouldn't the board be an uninteresting place to visit. I guess I'm trying to say that even the most innocent of conversations could be turned into something with the "hot button" label. I'm voting for not banning and agreeing to play nice. Question is, though, if little suzi sticks her tongue out at me will I ignore the temptation to stick mine out at her?:001_huh::lol: