--- Received from WPS.RYARL 223-5923               11-05-99  308p


Good morning, KC, fellow Africans and friends of Africa.

     This is how I see it:  The Dialogue Continues

Yes, KC, I certainly concord with you to a very large extent.
However,let me add that just as it takes individual member's
contribution to a village's effort to raise a child, so it is with
each of us adding our quotas to a collective outcome by a 'we'.
Not being taken literally, the danger in propounding on 'we', a
political rhetorical disclaimer or doctrine is that it encourages
reliance on others instead of self.  Ultimately, this results to
either nothing being done or something is being done by just a
very few with lot of stress and pressure from the 'we' for the
benefit of all.  As it is said, 'Each drop of rain makes an
ocean', so should it hold that our individual contribution to the
whole minimizes pressure and thus a less painful result. With your
current leadership role in Africa United Football Club, I hope you
can relate to this.  There is a Christian song entitled"  'Let
There Be Peace, Let It Begin With Me'.  No, I cannot ensure
universal peace but I can add to it by listening to my conscience,
the God within me, to do the right things for the right reasons.
Truly, one tree cannot make a forest.

In relevance to Gates' work, no it should not take each of us to
write about Africa. This is why we need to be a little careful in
how we become critical especially if we do not know for sure that
we are part of his audience. Even if each of us did, our
respective works would be for a specific audience depending on
what we want to communicate. Doing so should not draw criticisms
as initial reactions from others unless they were quite sure that
they knew why and for whom it was being done.  Meanwhile, I am
quite aware here that lot of us take pleasure in, as spectators,
pretending to know the game better than the player(s) who make the
game their career. No matter where that player comes from, as long
as they truly chose to make the game their career, there is no
doubt that they know a lot more than the spectators and even a
little more than other players.  Isn't that true?

Please note here that I purposely went beyond the walls of some
reactions to Gates' work to hopefully help in encouraging
cautiousness in our tendency to kill and/or bury other people's
ambitions, interests, desire or talents to the well-being of all.
It sometimes results to hurting instead of helping everyone
involved and some innocent people.  This is how I see it.

Thanks so much, KC, for the contribution to the continued
dialogue.  Good job.  I hope all of us will see this as an another
opportunity to learn from others' views  on issues like this.
Quite interesting, isn't it? Yap!

Cheers, God bless and have a great week, folks.

Richard Yarl
<><><><><><>

Madison WI
(608) 277-5687
ryarl@wpsic
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