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Obviously, judging from some of the past few posts (and that certainly
includes mine) some topics can be very emotional with celiacs.      This
should not be suprising considering the unending frustrations that we have
to endure (especially those at the more sensitive end of the spectrum).
This frustration is certainly not lessened by the contrasting experience of
living in another country with a far more enlightened attitude than is
present in the United States*1 today and knowing that many of these
frustrations are largely avoidable with a different governemental approach.
 
Nevertheless it was never my intention to "attack" Don Kassarda - only to
disagree with his opinions.    Perhaps the strenght of my disagreement came
across as an "attack" - if so, that is not what was intended.    I have
disagreed with Don in the past and found him to be reasonable and willing
to consider other opinions.      I can understand that from his frame of
reference (i.e.: not being a celiac with a high level and wide range of
sensitivies) his view may seem very reasonable.    What I was trying to get
across is that there are sound and logical reasons (which only a celiac
would be really aware of) for believeing that there is a strong pressure on
celiacs to **underestimate** their levels of sensitivity.    This
"pressure"  is due to the very high costs (in time, money, aggravation,
inconvience, etc. etc.) of avoiding gluten.     I would maintain that **NO
ONE**, not even a celiac, who has not seriously attempted to avoid **ALL**
gluten for an extended period of time can possibly fully appreciate either
the very great degree of difficulty of such an attempt or the huge amount
of frustration generated due to the numerous inevitable accidental
exposures in spite of one's best efforts.    **IF ONE DOES appreciate this,
I believe that one would find it very difficult to imagine that anyone
would maintain such effort without very clear and convincing reasons for
believing that it was necessary.**
 
What is so bad is NOT that there are hidden traps.   It is that there are
so **unnecessairily** many of them that the process of sorting them out
becomes orders of magnitude more complicated than it needs to be.
 
I appreciate Don's posts to the list and his good faith efforts to help.
It would be a loss if he were to leave the list.
 
But what we ALL need to remember is that we are all acting in good faith
from our various frames of reference and that hearing from ALL viewpoints
is important - ***especially hearing from those that differ from our
own***.     If we forget that we have half lost the battle.
 
I apologize to Don (or anyone else) if anything I said seemed like a
personal attack.   That particular issue happens to be a very sensitive one
for me.
 
Jim Barron
Chapel Hill NC
 
"We have met the enemy and he is us."     (Walt Kelly, creator of "Pogo")
 
 
_________________
*1  So much so that, in spite of the fact that it means that I would have
to travel over 10,000 miles and be separated from all of my relatives,  I
have often (and am) seriously considering returning to a country with a far
more enlightened attitude than the one of my birth.