A Call for Civility and Respect, Going Forward

Hi all! Over the past few days, I've been grappling with how to post something like this without coming off as highfalutin...but I continue to feel the need to express these personal thoughts and hopes going forward.

We are all on here because we love Broadway. That's the bottom line, and the theatre is such a wonderful, beautiful thing to be able to share with others. It has been one of my greatest pleasures to be able to talk about theatre with others on here, whether by sharing industry scoops, writing personal reviews of shows, or even griping about bad experiences as an audience member. All of that and more is what keeps me coming back on here, and always will. I'm grateful to know many of you, even through usernames and avatars!

However, we are, of course, living during tumultuous, crazy times, and most of us on here feel quite passionately about our political opinions and worldviews. As such, the need for healthy discourse and open discussion—without fear of being ostracized for expressing your views—has never been greater.

I would like to take this opportunity, then, to openly and honestly apologize for some of my posts in the past which have unnecessarily incited or annoyed people. I'll say firsthand that some of my single GIF posts, for example, while perhaps personally humorous in the moment, ultimately don't contribute to a open, engaging conversation, and I realize that in retrospect. I plan to remedy this going forward. However, I cannot apologize for my posts which express my admittedly conservative political stances. I feel quite passionately about my principles, and truthfully, on a discussion board that runs deep blue, I feel that I have the capacity to sometimes contribute a unique thought or perspective to some conversations (though maybe that's just me). Nevertheless, from this thread going forward, I am making a personal pledge on these boards to cease my single-GIF, perhaps provocative posts—though I do remain committed to offering my opinions and expressing my voice, and like it or not, that includes my conservative worldviews.

Given this personal acknowledgment, I would like to call on my fellow BWW users to consider taking a moment to think about what and how you post on here. Writing about your strong dislike for a particular policy from today's administration is, of course, completely justifiable. Writing generally that somebody is a "moron," an "idiot," a whatever, for the simply sake of name-calling...maybe not useful. Writing to specifically disagree with the content of another poster's thoughts is justifiable. Penning a thread driven specifically toward another individual, or calling another user a "self-loathing homosexual" who needs to "shut the F*** up" (in all caps, no less)...again, maybe not.

This call to others serves neither to police speech nor to tell others what they should or shouldn't be writing. That's, of course, a personal decision—and I maintain that free speech, even speech which we detest, is foundational to our society. However, I did want to make public my personal pledge and see if we could try just a bit harder to be a civil, mutually respectful board going forward. There are so many interesting people on here with interesting thoughts to share—there's no reason for our conversations to be diluted by rudeness and insults, or for anybody to feel they shouldn't speak up for fear of insults, bullying, and/or name-calling.

Thank you very much if you've taken the time to read through my thoughts, and I hope those whom regularly see me as a cancer on here will afford me the opportunity to grow and develop the way I think and write on here. I remain confident that we are all more similar than different, and I think we can work to share these boards in a way that fosters kindness and tolerance, rather than provokes antagonism and animosity.

Hoping everybody has a wonderful SuperBowl Sunday and end to the weekend

I hope you get a more polite response than I did, when I posted something similar.

OK going forward.

Until....

Proof of the pudding and all that.

Will revisit this thread is say 3 weeks and see whats going on.

That's rich coming from you, since you and your alter-ego SueStorm are responsible for most of the ill feeling around here.

I can't respond to any of your[everybody's] political discussions as I am totally ignorant of most countries politics, even my own.

I am continually in awe of the knowledge and passion so many have on here no matter what team they bat for.

Discuss.criticise, argue, banter but dissolving into the gutter to try to 'win' and argument becomes a little childish.

Broadway you sure know how to ruffle a few boas, which is in itself colourful but has done nothing to draw but a handful of followers on this board.

Your mature and thoughtful letter deserves mature responses so hopefully that happens and everyone moves forward and enjoys more intelligent debates.

Aw. You need a safe space, buddy?

There's a rather large difference, I think, between being civil and collaborating with a fascist wannabe. I'd prefer to not do the latter.

Added: I would also prefer to not be civil to any supporter of Mugabe, Amin, Stalin, Mussolini, the Duvaliers, the Ceausescus, Gaddafi, Kim Jong Il or Un, Pétain, or Hitler (among others).

Updated On: 2/6/17 at 08:18 AM

Thank you very much, yankeefan7, BroadwayRox, hork, MichelleCraig, SweetLips, Margo, and Petra for your thoughtful and kind responses

PalJoey, I wish you might actually read what I wrote. My post was a plea to curtail the negativity associated with responses such as yours. I recognize that our political opposition exists (on nearly all fronts, at that), but you have certainly posted some outright cruel things in the past yourself. I'm simply calling for civility and good will.

mysteriousgrowl, ha! I truthfully can't tell how tongue-in-cheek that post is, but I do believe that today's safe space/"snowflake" culture is quite detrimental to our lifeblood. This thread wasn't a call for a "safer space" on here, though—just a call for more kindness and respect

newintown, while I recognize that your attitudes toward the President will probably never change, I'd like to ask you to consider how conversation-suppressing a phrase like "collaborating with a fascist wannabe" is. I know many, many Trump supporters stand by the man not because they're white supremacists or homophobes or hoping for a Nazi takeover—but because they truly believe he is the solution to a number of the country's problems. Of course, I respect that you probably wholeheartedly disagree with these people, but it's perhaps more productive to do so on a point-by-point basis than with sweeping claims.

BroadwayConcierge said: "Thank you very much, yankeefan7, BroadwayRox, hork, MichelleCraig, SweetLips, Margo, and Petra for your thoughtful and kind responses

PalJoey, I wish you might actually read what I wrote. My post was a plea to curtail the negativity associated with responses such as yours. I recognize that our political opposition exists (on nearly all fronts, at that), but you have certainly posted some outright cruel things in the past yourself. I'm simply calling for civility and good will.

mysteriousgrowl, ha! I truthfully can't tell how tongue-in-cheek that post is, but I do believe that today's safe space/"snowflake" culture is quite detrimental to our lifeblood. This thread wasn't a call for a "safer space" on here, though—just a call for more kindness and respect

newintown, while I recognize that your attitudes toward the President will probably never change, I'd like to ask you to consider how conversation-suppressing a phrase like "collaborating with a fascist wannabe" is. I know many, many Trump supporters stand by the man not because they're white supremacists or homophobes or hoping for a Nazi takeover—but because they truly believe he is the solution to a number of the country's problems. Of course, I respect that you probably wholeheartedly disagree with these people, but it's perhaps more productive to do so on a point-by-point basis than with sweeping claims.



"

And our biggest problem is intolerance and hate. He's not going to address that, at all. He won't even admit it exists.

It's a public board.



You'll never have all positive and civil posts.



And even if you did, some people would still take comments the wrong way and be offended by them.



If you want that go to FB where you can curate your own page.



Otherwise learn to take the bad with the good and move on.

I think some of us feel that supporting Donald Trump is inherently uncivil and disrespectful. Put another way, any honest evaluation we can provide of Donald Trump and his movement is bound to be offensive to members of that movement.

As Lillian Hellman famously wrote during an earlier period of American fascism, "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions."

Yes Petra Who is?