I would like to preface this by saying I have never met Bill Whan. However, I have been a member of this list for many years and have always enjoyed reading his very interesting and informative posts, including his most recent one. I was astounded to read that people were offended by a word in a passage from long-byegone days that he quoted in that post. A word that, although certainly offensive now, was in wide use back then. And I was even more surprised by the action of the OOS board to suspend his membership in the list for six months. I can certainly see that it would be offensive if he himself USED that word in a post, but not just because it was a word within a quote that he used. Perhaps we should institute book-burning of books such as Huckleberry Finn which, if my memory serves me correctly, contained now-politically incorrect words as well.
I can understand the board notifying Bill that his post was offensive to some people, and that he should not repeat this possible error in judgment, but I think banning him for six months is an outrageous punishment. I hope that the board takes into account the opinions of people such as myself who are upset by its action and reinstates him to the list (assuming he would even want to come back).
Darlene Friedman



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