Peter,

Just a short note to thank you for your patience, and for helping take this
initiative...

[At 03:14 AM 3/5/97 -0600, you wrote:]

>This will be the last post in this thread...

that has long been overdue.  I am sorry it went on so long, but guess I
have a weakness for stepping in whenever I think someone's getting picked
on unfairly.  I'm just a sucker for the underdog.

In any event, this thing had run its course with my own patience, too.
Just don't have the time to deal with such ongoing activity, especially
when it's primarily in the negative theme with which this "thread" seemed
to exist.  Doubt there was too much listening very closely to what the
others were saying in the final debates. At least I didn't get the
impression anyone at all got what I was trying to get across about there
being room for all sorts of diversity of thought, strokes and approaches in
this hopefully mutual effort to improve humankind's dietary beliefs and
habits.

Since the list you had before was called "veg-raw," when I first came
aboard, but changed with the assumption of the new RAW instincto majority,
during my traveling absence last year; and, in that my own feelings are
admittedly pretty strong on the viability and ethical issues of the non-AF
(animal foods) approach to dietary practices on this planet; I was
obviously quite rapidly becoming a sort of festering anachronism and
completely out of place here.

Amidst all the charges of zealotry and fanaticism leveled at the NFL crew,
I sensed a very strong current of the very identical zealotry and equal
fanaticism coming from those making the charges against the NFL team being
targeted!

That's been my biggest disappointment with the list.

I sincerely wish you all the very best and only hope that time will mellow
the strong feelings of adversity towards the three young fellows who put
out NFL.  I may well be wrong, but seriously doubt it, however time will
tell, won't it?

I'm not arguing here that they (NFL) are without error, nor that you
are...or, for that matter that I am, either;  I'm simply saying that the
level of maturity and tolerance I'd like to see on a list is so far a bit
more attractive on the list that JR's set up, which is more my non-violent
vegan venue, anyway.

You should know that I received some messages from several lurkers on the
list giving sympathy to my position, but, again, that position was never
against you or my opponents or those of NFL...it was more against the lack
of tolerance I encountered and the strong expressions of anger, if not even
unmitigated hate I saw directed at three guys no longer even on the list to
defend themselves.

I repeat...the very same earmarks of fanaticism and zealotry of which the
NFLers were accused of exemplifying.  Martin Luther King and Ghandi
demonstrated how powerful it can be to refuse to get angry, but to rather
approach the enemy with love and understanding.  This way they never
endangered their own credibility by hypocritically engaging in the "eye for
and eye" sort of mentality....and, more importantly, they got far more
converts than they ever would have by attacking, victimizing and
denegrating their adversaries.  I think you'll agree that history has
proven this to be true.

If we rawists can't learn to get along with our own divergency of opinion;
can't learn to treat one another with respect, then we're not going
anywhere worth going, at least in my book.
That's my opinion.

If the NFL team has been guilty of this sort of hatred and anger, then this
disappointment of mine is just as much for their consumption as for yours
and those of my final few adversaries on your raw animal foods (instincto)
list.

Incidentally, have had some very rewarding fallout from all of this smoke
and fire: A few of my early protagonists on your list have become great
direct contact pen pals now, and for that I am very grateful to you and
David.  These former opponents have chastised me, and I them, but we moved
ahead in a pretty swift balance of peace and mutual respect.  It's great.
Thanks!

I trust that will be the case with us, as well.

If you're the same Peter Brandt I knew when I lived in Malibu...who was
from Germany and sold the dehydrated crackers and lived for a while in the
hangar at Clover Field, then hi....and goodbye, for now.

Love and best wishes to David, too, who I have known for many years from
(my Malibu days).

Cheers,

Ric