reminiscing...those wonderful Abanes days

[Steve Vander Ark]

No: HPFGUIDX 23534

Hey...

As I was reading the latest round of posts concerning the banning of 
the religion topic, it occurred to me that those who weren't here 
when Richard Abanes joined this group really should pause a minute 
and consider. You have no idea what it was like. I know, I know, 
you've been in flame wars before and you are a grown up and are 
perfectly capable of holding a lively arguement without letting 
things get out of hand. We all are (or would like to think so). But 
sort of like when Sirius told Harry about Voldemort's Dark Time in 
GF, you don't know what it was like and you wouldn't understand. I'm 
not being condescending here. That's just the truth.

The one quality that really struck me about Abanes is that he is a 
brilliant wordsmith. He knows how to twist words to say what he wants 
them to say and he does it so well that it's almost impossible to 
come back with any sort of reply. The discussion offended a great 
many people and there was a lot of anger and resentment around here. 
He had come on the pretext of honest, open, debate, but quickly 
demonstrated that he was only interested in using his gift of words 
to antagonize and irritate and hurt and wound and maybe even show 
these silly, misguided Harry Potter fans what idiots they are. And 
you know what? He was so damn annoying and twisting and impossible to 
talk to reasonably that he did bring out the worst in some of our 
number, which just proved his point, as far as he was concerned. 
However, he himself was one of the worst of the lot but simply 
refused to realize that and admit that he wasn't right on all counts. 
Very tellingly, when Heidi clearly pointed out a flagrant misquoting 
of JKR in his book, he never responded. He was very good at keeping 
the attention of things he thought he could win at with his twisting 
words. I do not say this lightly, but as a Christian, he reminds me 
of the Devil, coming under the banner of truth and twisting words to 
pit people against each other. That is the Devil's modus operendi.

Now why do I say all this? You have to understand, those of you who 
weren't part of that Dark Time, that those of us who were here then 
DON'T WANT TO GO BACK THERE AGAIN. It wasn't just a sort of nasty 
flame thing. We've had that too, believe me, and it's been dealt with 
and those subjects are just fine. But that particular subject is just 
not a good one for this group in light of our history. Please 
understand that and accept it. We are good people here. I LOVE the 
folks on this list. But I know our limits. Please accept that.