Since the end of May, there have been 97 posts offered
to Museum-L having to do with the subject of evolution
and/or intelligent design.  The thread appealed to
many people on this list, and animated discussions
occurred for a couple of weeks.  

Two days ago, a new post was offered that provides
additional information on the topic, and it was
offered in the spirit of providing a service to those
who were interested and who might be able to use such
information in formulating/designing new exhibit
material in the future.  It was offered by someone who
taught Sunday School for eight years (by popular
demand) and who has some background in understanding
the religious aspects of ID.

I know.  I am that person.  I know what was in my head
when I made it available here.  I'm on vacation at
this time with guests from out of town and had spent
the day along the beautiful California coastline
enjoying the surfing competition in Huntington Beach
when I came back to yet more ignorant feedback on list
and off about a posting.

Eight years ago I came to this list when, after 24
years working for a for-profit company, after having
raised approximately $3/4 million for the nonprofit
sector and averaging about 250 hours a year
volunteering in the community (on many occasions for
museums) and while undergoing coursework to further my
development skills.  I knew I would be making a job
change and considered most seriously taking the skill
sets I had acquired and applying them in a
constructive manner for one of my personal great
loves--museums.

When I read the description of this list, it did not
say that it was only for museum professionals but for
"all others interested in museum related
issues" as well.  That was and continues to be me.  I
never would begin to think it would be appropriate for
me to be on a list designed solely for curators or
archivists and, as you wend your way through the web
lists for your profession, you won't find me on those.
 

What I found, through the course of time, is that the
profession requires far too much education in exchange
for far too little compensation, and that, absent the
PhD a number of you hold, I made more money in any
given year that would allow me to continue to do the
things I love--travel and visit more museums. What I
also found over the course of the years is that you
could have some very highly "pedigreed" individuals
who are among the most elitist and sometimes blatantly
ignorant people on the face of this earth. 
Fortunately, they are few, and the quality members of
this worldwide, multi-disciplined list far outweigh
the pain of those few.

I have a luxury most of you don't.  Unless things
change substantively, I don't plan to work with or for
most of you, so if I offend you, I'm not burning a
career bridge as some of you possibly did in your
snippy, unprofessional, blatantly ignorant comments
this week.  Let me share with you now what those might
be:

1.  This list is only for museum professionals.  Post
only those things.

No.  You didn't do your homework when you got here and
ignorantly missed the discussion of 97 posts.

2.  You need to post a balanced perspective when you
offer information on evolution.

No, I don't.  The balance has been there.  It's not my
responsibility to educate you, and that wasn't my
misaligned purpose.  It was offering you, the museum
professionals of the world, an additional resource.

3.  I had over 30 posts in my inbox.  Form another
list and take it there.

Only 30?  My daily average--excluding a full-time job
outside of the profession--is somewhere in excess of
150 up to about 300 daily.  I had 94 between the time
I left home yesterday and the time I got back.  

Delete what does not interest you and let the subject
line be your key.  If you don't give a rat's patoot
about ID and evolution, quit being so absolutely
narcistic that the list is only about you, your needs,
your skew on a thread, your particular museum
discipline, and delete to your heart's content.  If
it's far too burdensome to do so, use a little
intelligent design of your email and create filters to
siphon out what you don't want to see or read.  If
it's me, God bless you.  Filter me.  I don't care. 
But don't try to strong arm censor me or anyone else
on this list thinking I have some need to be list
attention whore (as has been privately insinuated).

I have 1350 of you I try to get hired DAILY.  I spend
approximately 80 hours a month in volunteer service to
this community, and there's a place and a purpose for
what gets offered.  Your arrogance is sometimes quite
astounding.

4.  We're all wasting the taxpayer's dollars here on
these discussion when we have work to do.  

No, not all of us.  Some of us work full time jobs
outside of this for employers who believe that the
service to you all is noble and that it doesn't take
away from the work product for the company.  In fact,
it augments the benefit to the company in that it
takes for a more well-rounded employee.  It
personifies some part of the Covey principle of having
a balanced life and not being obsessed with one
segment thereof.

6.  You post too much, too often.

No.  There are no rules anywhere in the FAQ that say
how much and how often one can post.  From last I
remember, there is a governor on this list, a rule in
the list makeup that says that, when we get to
something like 150 posts in a day, the list goes into
suspense until the moderator (who is not me) releases
it.  

I may go weeks without posting a thing.  There may a
thread of particular interest in which I engage, or
information I glean in the course of my reading that
may be of benefit to some here I offer.  But these
aren't "Hey, look at me" posts.  Quite the contrary.

5.  You have to post your real, God-given name to be a
part of this list and because you don't, your postings
are invalid.

Horse crap!  It was not a condition of signing on, it
isnt important to most, my pseudonym has been
explained to the list a couple of times over, and it's
really none of your damned business.  The only reason
someone would be so obsessed with someone else's name
is for the purpose of control.  You require my real
name in order to size me up and figure out just who in
the devil you are maligning.  You want to run some
background check and see what you uncover so as to
discredit.

Those who need to know my name do.  It's not a secret.
 Sometime in the last year or so, I actually infused
my first name into my list info.  Get over your
obsession and quit trying to treat me like
Rumplestilsken.  This form of attack was provided
behind the scenes by one of the people who helped to
support the ignorant contention that I was just "list
noise".

The stupidity I've seen demonstrated in the last
couple of days reinforces for me the decision I made
not to go to work in an environment where people can
be so incredibly overbearing in their ignorance.  For
now, I simply advocate at large on your behalf.  

I encourage you who are so damned selfish to cut the
nonsense and recognize there are usually more than
3,000 of us on list.  If something doesn't interest
you, you cannot presume it won't be of benefit to
someone else.

It is not all about you, as it isn't all about me. 
It's about museums.

I have people to try to help get hired and a museum to
visit today.  God give you the wisdom to know that the
person you insult on list today could have been a
volunteer, a board member, or a patron, not to mention
an employer.



Indigo Nights
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