Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Go Todd!!!!

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 17:39:35 -0500

------- Original Message --------
   From: Robert Schwaninger <[email-masked]>
Subject: Go Todd!!!!

More Hot Ether:

As one of the more outspoken members of our industry with the good
fortune of having published a few articles which varied from humor to
heresy, I have been threatened many times.Nextel tried to get me
disbarred, an operator threatened to beat the tar out of me at a trade
show, and some members of my profession have launched diatribes against
me that can only be described as wholly defamatory.I have responded to
letters to the editor of MRT which questioned every aspect of my being,
commencing with the issue of whether my ancestors were bi-peds.I have
been called arrogant, stupid, disingenuous, immoral, evil, a gas bag,
and a host of modifiers and monikers that would make a sensitive person
blush -- and always because I expressed an opinion, a viewpoint, a way
of looking at things in perhaps a different and often unconventional
way.

When my opinion is assailed, I have no problem.That's fair game in any
dialogue.Disagreement, in even the most zealous of manners, is rarely a
problem.If you are not willing to have people express disagreement, then
don't publish your opinion.There is a risk in speaking one's
mind.Someone might show with absolute accuracy and particularity that
your opinion is wrong.And I have been wrong, naïve, simplistic and
sometimes silly in my opinions.When someone calls my opinion to task, I
try to be as gracious as I can be (then I privately go home and kick the
dog around for about an hour).But each time someone reminds me that all
brilliant ideas do not begin and end in the empty space between my ears,
I learn something.That's a good thing.And a little humility is necessary
if we are to gain wisdom with knowledge.

What annoys me are personal attacks.Those times when people suggest that
other people should be punished personally for their opinions.Todd
expresses an opinion and is threatened personally.Alan Dixon posts
something on the PWF and someone might suggest that Alan is lacking in
the requisite number of gray cells.Etc.These suggestions, threats, and
digs are rarely useful, unless obviously falling into the well timed
teasing element of a fun exchange of ideas.I have lost count of the
number of times when I have witnessed someone questioning the motives,
agenda, and competency of someone simply because they disagreed with an
opinion.

Within the context of this forum, I have been personally assailed.Did it
hurt my feelings?Nah-h-h..... But it does create some distractions that
are sometimes difficult to overcome for the purpose of additional
posting.Are there people in this industry whom I don't care for?Sure.Our
industry has its share of jerks, crooks, idiots and SOBs.But you won't
know who I don't like (save some entities) by anything I post on the
PWF.And I am not going to attack anyone personally on this site.I
already stop posting on one chat group because of improper use of it as
a vehicle for vitriol.

To the members of the PWF, I want to applaud you for your willingness to
exchange ideas, express opinions and sometimes disagree vehemently with
one another, without often slipping into discourtesy.To Todd, I want to
express my support to curtail the use of emails to threaten someone
physically.You keep writing and expressing your opinions, Todd.Don't
worry too much about the fools that resort to such foolish means of
expression.No one should stop writing, publishing, or expressing their
opinion just because someone doesn't like it.Take it from a veteran of
the back-biting wars, you are the better man.

Happy Thanksgiving, upon which I give thanks that everyone doesn't agree
with me.It would be a dull world.

Robert Schwaninger