[email protected]

I find the post below very interesting. It kind of relates to a discussion
happening right now in my life with a book group. We have been reading the
book "Women Without Superstition, No Gods, No Masters." It is the history of
freethinking women in the past two centuries. We have 15 women in this group
consisting of atheists, Catholics, Baptists, etc., and we have been able to
have a respectful discussion about our differences. It is so rare when women
can talk about such sensitive issues as religion and abortion, and still love
eachother. I don't post to this loop often, but I do read most messages. I
have found that this group resembles our book group. It has always seemed to
be open and accepting, and many controversial views have been shared but
respected. My question now is why can't we discuss abortion without people
getting all upset? In all the posts that I read, I never got the impression
that someone was attacking another person personally. I took it as someone's
opinion. IMO, many women tend to want to keep the peace all the time. I
actually used to be one of those women. I think unschooling changed me
somehow. Anyway, religion and abortion are sensitive issues, but they do
relate to my life, and I don't see the problem in discussing these issues
with other adult women. I certainly don't expect everyone on this list to
agree with my views, but we learn to appreciate others by listening to their
views. We learn that our views aren't necessarily the correct views for
everyone else out there. There have been many times while reading the digest
that I've starting reading something, found it of little interest, skipped
the rest and moved on. The same can be done about the abortion or religion
issues if it makes someone uncomfortable.  Now it is possible that all
discussions other than unschooling be "officially" banned from this list, but
we would lose so much, and someone would be very busy deleting messages. We
may not all agree with everything on this list, but I personally think that
it is healthy to have discussions where we don't all agree. I have actually
learned to be more accepting by listening to   people with differing views.
Let's not be fearful of these subjects. Let's learn from them.

Wendy
n a message dated 2/2/01 7:45:41 AM Central Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
Hi all! After the last week of bickering , I decided
> to start a new email list for unschoolers on a more
> peaceful, less argumentative path.
> go to yahoo groups, check out unschoolkingdom.
> If political debates dont fuel your fire, come on
> over!