A couple folks have questioned the thread, and whether or not it belongs here. I just wanted to let folks know what's up. I'm intentionally not replying within that thread, as I don't want to misdirect it.
I, along with the moderators, have been keeping a close eye on the thread. Everyone involved has done a great job of sticking to a discussion of the incident itself, as well as what homeschooling is and is not. The discussion has been social and philosophical, but not political. I applaud each and every participant for keeping it that way.
As long as the thread continues on the path it's on, it will stay. No, it's not rocketry related, but this is the Watering Hole, and there are lots of non-rocketry related discussions in here -- it's what the Watering Hole is for.
To the participants in the thread -- keep it up! You're doing a great job of keeping what can become an emotionally charged topic from becoming one.
-Kevin
Kevin, George Gassaway, Et al.,
The thread wasn't started as a veiled attempt to get a political issue (non-rocketry) into the discussion; God only knows that when I want to be a trouble maker, I am DIRECT and OVERT about it!
It was merely pointing out an issue that affects many of us; over the years I have read but not posted on this and other forums; I was just simply burnt out from r.m.r., yet I would read postings and add the information to my memory banks. This is how I learned about the home-schooling population on here.
I knew that many of the readers and posters here home-school, and I have home schooled my daughter (26 now) and grandkids in addition to their public school course work because it was severely lacking. If I had the resources, and time, I would take over their education completely. Home-schooling is an important issue and people in rocketry use model rockets as a teaching tool for chemistry, physics, and mathematics curriculum examples.
So please George, understand, that it wasn't a way to attack people in power, insult groups, or mud-sling at individuals. It was to bring forth a topic that people might find interesting and not get bent out of shape over; well at least they shouldn't get bent out of shape.
Funny, even over at rcgroups.com in their 'life, The Universe, and Politics', they get along but still have to suspend accounts every so often because a person/topic gets to heated or enough complaints come in and they are forced to act.
I think if I ran a board, I would leave the policing of the forums up to the users; if you don't like what is posted, then ignore the poster, counter post, or don't visit the site. The board wouldn't be a profit driven site. I would have to draw the lines at sexual, racial, religious harassment; no porn or cyber (unless it is private, not posted, no child porn), and no domestic/foreign terrorism/plotting. Other than what I just listed, it would be a free-for-all of thinking, ideas, politics, and life-styles. Yep, I sure would like to find a site that is like that...
Seems to me that behind the facades, people share a whole lot in common; trying to steer people into a ‘one size fits all’ type of information exchange portal is counter productive in the long run. My opinion only.
Jonathan
P.s. Don't we honor our system that places the rights of the individual above that of the group? We aren't fascists. Freedom of speach and thinking protects not the popular voice/mind, but the unpopular. It doesn't protect, 'Have a nice day', or 'Bless you', but the antithesis of those sayings, but then like a poster pointed out, this is a privately ran board and freedom of speech is up to the what the moderators will tolerate.
While I was away before editing this posting, I registered a couple of domain names ... I think I will run a site as the one I described above.