Nancy
I trust this post is insufficiently long to be thought presumptuous.
Both you and Ken must be aware that, even after months of watching the ructions at this site, I have held back from making any contribution - either way.
It's with heavy heart that I advise that I cannot sit here and let a couple of items in your post go past - and I've even managed to wangle a word theme out of it to try to justify it to myself.
To start with, I refer to your white text regarding a "specific time period for the ban". My dictionary tells me that a ban is "a sentence of banishment, a denunciation and a prohibition". Banishment itself is defined as "condemned to exile, to drive away, to expel". Nowhere in any of these definitions do I sense a time component to the sentence of banishment. At risk of being incorrect, I suggest that without the aid of a dictionary most people would also see a banishment as a permanent sentence. Following this logic can you not accept that the banishment of Keiva WAS a permanent sentence?
My second point is one upon which I will happily stand corrected....don't I recall Jackie posting (as the Administrator) that Keiva had been banned for persistent inflammatory posting? I don't recall you drawing this out of her but, if so, I apologise.
After months of silence, I'd like to offer a comment - in the form of a query. I'd just like to know what sort of person wants to hang around a place where they are patently unwanted by (it would seem) so many people (let's say 40 - a healthy chunk of the former regular contributors to this Board anyway). Ken's continued presence is not doing anyone any good and it must be putting a strain on your relationship - so why does it persist? Why does he stick pins himself by putting up with this? And as for taking a trip almost to the site of the Wordapalooza venue and keeping an ear on proceedings through a third party....well I'm left speechless and very dissapointed. The Ken that I sent the book to was not that person - was he? (BTW has it arrived yet? - believe me, I did send it).
I learned a very tough lesson some years ago which challenged a core belief of mine. I learned that you can't please all the people all the time, no matter how wrong they you think they may be and no matter how hard you try to make them. I also know from tragic personal experience that that life is too short to surround oneself with negative experiences. Life is a gift that can be snatched away without notice.
Ken, as the gentleman you once said I was, I implore you to leave this place. I respect your intellect and wit and know that it will be received warmly somewhere else, away from this hostility. I even offer to meet with you at that place and together share the joy of words again.
stales
