Posted by Harvey Siegel '67 on 4/10/2008, 9:44 am, in reply to "Re: Mr.’s Dave Kaisler, John Gray Wallace & Dennis Jordan… Give it a rest!"
70.155.70.112
In October of last year, the Class of ’67 held their 40th Reunion in Portsmouth. We gathered at 2 venues on two successive evenings and got to spend a great deal of time talking. One of the subjects that came up over and over again was this very Wilson High Alumni Web site hosted by Eddie Lee ‘68. I was amazed at the number of people I talked with who visited the site regularly but never contributed. They would say…”I love to read it but don’t have anything that I’d like to contribute personally.” I just naturally thought that those who would read… would also write and create a dialog. Not always the case!
What we have here in this latest skirmish is a question of rights… more particularly the rights of the writer vs. the rights of the reader.
In private, the writer has rights of creativity and opinion and freedom of speech. They have the right to write whatsoever they please. They have the right to keep what is written private or to make it public. Words that are never read do not have the capacity to offend. It is once these words are made public that the rights of the writer may be altered… based on the way the righting affects other’s rights. I do not believe that this is a good way to filter information and opinions. Writing, if the writer wants, should be allowed to be made public. The writer has the right to defend their intentions and challenge other people’s interpretations of the writing but does not have the right to be deemed correct.
The reader, on the other hand, has the right to read anything that the writer permits the reader to read. The reader does not have the right to read that which the writer did not intend to be public. The reader has the right to an opinion about that which is read. The reader is allowed to be offended by something that is read but does not have the right to not be offended by something that is read. The reader does not have the right to enjoy or agree with what is written. The reader has the right to interpret. No matter what the author says, the reader can never be wrong about an interpretation because personal interpretation is independent of the writer’s intent.
In short, write what you want to write… read what you want to read and let the chips fall where they may!
