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What Part Of "NO"....

is difficult to understand?

I've thought long and hard about what I'm about to say. And will probably get flamed for it. But I'm tired of biting my tongue.

Awhile back we had a discussion of GMOs. The webmaster, for good reasons, asked that it be taken to the other list.

Now we are again having that discussion. Two days ago he asked, once more, that it not be discussed here, but be taken to the other list. And for two more days people continue to post on it.

My concern isn't about whether or not we talk about GMOs. There's a deeper issue involved, something that's bothered me since joining this list.

Too often on these boards somebody will post XYZ, and somebody reads it as ABC, and resonds that way. Then somebody reads ABC as DEF and a whole contretempts starts----including attributing DEF to whoever posted XYZ in the first place.

We're supposed to be professional communicators. Yet, it seems, many of us can't even _read_ plain English, let alone write it. It's a hell of a note, I think, when people who use words for a living don't understand them themselves.

And, referring back to another recent discussion, it might just explain why there's so much bad garden writing around. If somebody doesn't understand words when they read them, how can they use them properly? How can they understand their connotations and denotations; their rhythm and flow; the way they should be arranged to make sense? How can they ask editors and readers to comprehend them when they have no comprehension themselves?

Just something I needed to get off my chest.


Brook



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