Some months ago when Sheriff Joe was waging his campaign, I decided to adopt the persona of the Prince in Machiavelli's The Prince. I was trying to steer the conversation to the point that Sheriff Joe would respond to the pressure brought to him by his bosses, the Maricopa County Board, if we complained loudly to them. However, with one small exception, this point was lost and I had to respond to irrelevant comments by folks. Nothing has been done to stop Sheriff Joe. He will be re-elected. You will get the government you deserve. Therefore, I will crawl under my rock and disappear.
    I also adopted an extreme persona with arrogance because the Phoenix board is dull and moribund. Folks respond to strong postings, but they would not offer one themselves, regrettably. "What trees do they plant?" By nature I am a person who knows my limitations, but folks would rather resort to ad hominem attacks rather than discuss ideas. I see at least five more major issues in "this field" that I wanted to bring up, but I fear the respondents would avoid the points. What did Stewart Smalley say, "Denial is more than a river in Egypt." Therefore, I will crawl under my rock and disappear.
    To IKneadU and others, America is an anti-intellectual nation, so any time a person brings up an idea or uses big words and is therefore "a snob," it becomes an easy target for a put down. I guess Richard Hofstadter was right, especially for folks who live west of the Mississippi. Did you ever have a teacher who takes an extreme position to engender a vigorous discussion? I guess not. It is simple to attack the messenger. Therefore, I will crawl under my rock and disappear.
    I will leave you to yourselves and direct my energies toward more productive areas.

Prince, as Winston Churchill once said...You are a modest man, with much to be modest about.

Perhaps if your posts weren't so condescending and you didn't have to rely on quoting others instead of using your own thoughts, people would respond a little differently to you.
Butt, if you continue to borrow from those you thunk are idols? to you or the readers hear, youre posts will continue to miss the intended mark.

The most important aspect of being UNDERSTOOD is first being HEARD. One needs to communicate with his/her audience in a manner which encourages the listeners to at least "HEAR" what is being said. Now, whether or not they agree with the message is another story..................

-- Modified on 3/21/2004 8:41:15 AM

Geezus! Even your goodbye has to be boring and long winded!!!
(Basically, it sounds like the old 'nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I guess I'll go eat worms' routine. LOL)

Do yourself and others a favor and while your directing your energies "toward more productive areas" please make one of those areas working on getting off that pedestle that you've put yourself on and getting over your delusions of grandeur ;o)