Memorial Day

Luiz Ernesto Merkle (merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca)
Fri, 29 May 1998 15:46:45 -0400 (EDT)

In my last message I've intented to say that I was pleased that we were
being able to recognize the many voices present among us. Some of them are
interwined in our discourse, others are interwined in our way of listening
or not listening to certain issues. It seems we have to go a little
further than that. We have to be able not only to recognize the voices but
to listen to them. What do I mean?

My last message was on Wednesday. But in the same way that I interjected
immediately in the support of Naoki's voices (I've done that before in
other contexts and I will do it again in similar circumstances) I've
restrained my right to speech in accordance to my obligation to listen. I
believe that there is no multivoicedness without multiple listenings.

But since Wednesday, there have been two voices missing in our discourse.
Yes TWO, if you haven't noticed. Many have noted John's silence
but not mine. Why? In expressing that, we may have silenced him, instead
of transforming one of his voices. That is not a critique, please, it is
an invitation for reflection.

I appreciate that Gary finally broke the circle saying that we cannot
exile John from this community. He has something to contribute. Otherwise
we will end up doing exactly what we were criticizing at the beginning of
this thread and nothing would have changed. (Phillip, thanks for your
message about remembering).

Now is time to speak again. I'm glad that Naoki is back in the loop. His
contributions are always insightful and it has been very nice to know a
little bit of the many Naoki's.

But I would also like to see the many John's participating again. We may
have our differences, but we have to make of them, differences that make
differences, instead of wiping them out.

So, this is an invitation for you, John, from someone who was at the
root of this episode. Thanks.

from
Luiz

ps: I'm sorry for interrupting other threads of discussion in which I was
participating, but the seriousness of this issue have eaten all my time.
Francoise, just in a few words, Alfred Lang's message have expressed
wonderfully many of my thoughts about humans and machines.

_____________________________________________________________

Luiz Ernesto Merkle merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca
University of Western Ontario voice: +1 519 858 3375 (home)
Department of Computer Science fax: +1 519 661 3515 (work)
N6A 5B7 London Ontario Canada www.csd.uwo.ca/~merkle