[TPIN] Taps

[Scott Carson]

> On 1 Jun 2006, at 12:51, Joel Eymard wrote:
>
>> TPIN means "Trumpet Players' International Network".
>>
>> So this is an INTERNATIONAL list. According to TPIN info page:
>> "The topics of discussions are quite varied, including such topics  
>> as pedagogy, equipment (of course), performance practice,  
>> recordings, improvisation, famous and not-so-famous performers,  
>> literature and others. Instruments and accessories have been  
>> bought and sold on the network and many collegial friendships have  
>> been formed."
>>
>> I left Rec.music.makers.trumpet because I was upset by discussions  
>> about religion. I would not like to find here something similar.  
>> So please let us talk only about trumpet (or cornet, flugel,  
>> picc...), bearing in mind that TPIN members live in any country.
>
> With all due respect, the allegedly "offensive post" was not a  
> "discussion about religion", it was merely a post in which the  
> author of the post expressed a wish that had religious and, some  
> would say, patriotic, sentiments.
>
> While I agree that TPIN is, first and foremost, a forum for the  
> discussion of the trumpet and its repertoire, I think we must also  
> be adults about the fact that there are other people out there in  
> the world--especially in the "international" world that is being so  
> handily bandied about--whose views and attitudes are different from  
> our own, and they are free to hold and to express those views  
> whether or not their views make us happy, just so long as they  
> don't use this forum as an instrument for the promotion of those  
> views. As the info page states, "many collegial friendships have  
> been formed". It will not be possible to form anything like a  
> collegial friendship if people are not permitted to get to know a  
> little bit about the personalities of the other posters, that is,  
> if folks are not even permitted so much as to mention what their  
> personal beliefs happen to be.
>
> It is a delicious irony that the same folks who find it offensive  
> that someone would mention his religious belief and patriotism--in  
> passing, mind you, and not at all as part of some sort of  
> jingoistic reproach to the rest of us, such as the one we were  
> treated to earlier today from the UK--are so willing to enforce  
> their own peculiar subjective beliefs on everyone else, for no  
> other reason than to maintain their own personal comfort level.
>
> To those folks who are offended and find it uncomfortable to be in  
> the company of those whose beliefs are different from their own, I  
> would make two suggestions: first, try to read just those parts of  
> the post that are about the trumpet and its repertoire--presumably  
> posts in which there is no such content will not be permitted. If  
> you cannot do that, then try to be mature if you happen to  
> accidentally read something that you don't personally agree with.  
> Second, try to remember that not everyone will find your beliefs  
> and attitudes all that congenial either, but we tolerate you having  
> them and expressing them anyway.
>
> Scott Carson
> http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~carsond