Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Communications by email

[Kay Argyle (argyle]

We had a discussion while in the construction stage about what subjects were
"appropriate" for our community listserve.  I came down on the side of
anything and everything -- movie recommendations, politics, whatever.  It
helped us to get to know each other if we were permitted to show our outside
interests, and given a choice I preferred to read off-topic messages instead
of arguments about whether something was off-topic.

This week, for instance, scattered in with news of a prodigal cat's return,
reminders of the monthly belly dance class and a children's activity, and
discussions about tree planting and trespassers, have been
* political action alerts,
* news of war protests,
* poetry ("After every war / someone has to clean up. / Things won't
/straighten themselves up, after all." -- Judyth Hill),
* slogans from the signs at Salt Lake's anti-war rally (a picture of the
President captioned "And you thought he was pro-life"),
* a piece by John Cleese ("Canada, Mexico, and Australia formed the 'Axis of
Nations That Are Actually Quite Nice But Secretly Have Some Nasty Thoughts
About America,'" ...),
* articles on talking to children about the war,
* a forwarded letter from a member's son in the military, and
* ruthless methods for getting yourself off calling and direct mail lists.

Not being as political as some of my neighbors, there are times when I don't
want to read one more message about Union Pacific's or Walmart's latest
iniquities, but that's what the delete button is for.

The method we use when we absolutely want to be sure that everyone got a
message is to tape it to their doors -- which admittedly only works in built
communities.

Kay

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