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Amnesty - Dr.Bob and all

Posted by hyperfocus on October 3, 2010, at 21:21:09

"Amnesty (from the Greek amnestia, oblivion) is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people. It includes more than pardon, inasmuch as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offense. The word has the same root as amnesia. Amnesty is more and more used to express 'freedom' and the time when prisoners can go free"
...
An amnesty may be extended when the authority decides that bringing citizens into compliance with a law is more important than punishing them for past offenses."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty

A few weeks ago was the Jewish New Year which traditionally has a focus on forgiveness and 'washing away' of sins. Ditto the Islamic and traditional Western/Christian New Year which is recognized as a time for starting over.

I'd like to think of PB as a family because we share things here we can't anywhere else. The only people I know who understand what mental illness is like and what taking psychiatric medication is like are here. Therefore it saddens me greatly when people leave this site for one reason or another. Where will they go? Who will they turn to for answers and advice and empathy?

Dr. Bob. I'd like to propose a one-time amnesty for all babblers who are blocked. Amnesty meaning that all posters who are or who were ever blocked will have their block history erased and reset. I'm sure that the vast majority of blocked posters did contravene the civility rules but it seems now, for a number of reasons, the absence of many posters due to long and repeated blocks is having a negative effect on the community. Blocks are a good thing but they are just a means to an end. And right now I think resetting the blocks for everyone would have a massively positive effect on the community, for a number of reasons. Every legislative system, even the town library, recognizes the need for however rare amnesty as a way of putting the 'family' back together, opening the gate and asking all the poor stray sheep to please come back in...

Also I'd like propose that all Babblers who have grievances against Dr.Bob and other posters just forgive each other and move on. I'm sure mistakes were made in judgment and hurtful things were said and done here but could we just put everything in the past where it belongs?

Could we all just reset our relationships with each other? Just put away the knives and forget about who's right and who's wrong and just go back to what PB used to be about?

I've been lurking on-and-off here since 1999 and it seems to me that 'administrative' issue are starting to consume the boards much more than they used to. I don't really know why this is - maybe it's just the natural evolution of an organic community. Maybe it's a sign that we need some new legislative action and structures. I do know that there are a lot of contentious issues that people can't seem to agree on right now. Things like what's civil/uncivil, who gets blocked and who doesn't, what's acceptable use of babblemail, privacy wrt Facebook and Twitter, posters sharing the boards...an amnesty wouldn't bring resolution to these things of course but it would clear the air, so to speak, and allow us to focus on the real issues and not have our own grievances and hurts and faults in the way.

Maybe we need some kind of Elders Council which would be posters recognized by Dr. Bob as having the best interests of the community at heart and would have more oomph, so to speak, when making recommendations and rendering judgments on policy issues. It wouldn't be nearly as time-consuming as Deputies, but just a role that has some authority and autonomy. Dr. Bob, you're just one person so despite your best intentions I don't think it's possible for you to consider all sides and viewpoints and do the best thing for everybody involved. The necessity of a group of representatives for the citizenry irregardless of the type of governmental system involved has been recognized for ages.

So just something we could think about. Baa.


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poster:hyperfocus thread:964630
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20100714/msgs/964630.html