Thanks for educating me - and doing so kindly. I'm genuinely grateful.

I have something to get off my chest. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be a good idea to directly address the sources of my frustration - too likely to lead to being flamed and piled onto as I was recently on Twitter when I gave my opinion on a tweet that advocated for an end to civility. We are in a time when there are a lot of things that make one feel like one has to censor oneself - not conducive to dialog, only good for shutting that down.

I've made other posts and get the occasional response that seems to have a sneer behind them, or read and see it happening to others. The dark side of DU these days. It used to always (or so it seems in my memory) to be a community with a friendly culture. Of course that was before the horrible 2016 results and unleashed a level of fury that in some cases seems to scorch everyone, and assume that if we don't know or don't agree, something is wrong with us. Very tiresome when that happens. And this space doesn't seem as safe as it used to.

So I especially thought you all should be thanked, even though in other times I suspect it would be just what we all expect of ourselves in terms of the way to treat one another.