N4INU
09-05-2001, 09:06 PM
Frank (ab7yz@hotmail.com) writes "We amateur Radio Operators are indeed a passionate gaggle of people. We are opinionated, and yes, we’re measurably inflexible in our pursuit for our chosen modalities of operation.
To evoke a passionate response, one only needs to mention a common mode of operation, and we’re into the trenches, lobbing grenades filled with vitriol, fanned by our personal passions.
I am dubious that you are likely to manifest such passion about your choice of breakfast cereal or which coffee shop serves a better latte, but a mention of that operational mode releases a maelstrom of passion. Caustic commentary emerges from the silent majority and claims of “CB” mentality from the “been there, done that’s” are ever present. Unequivocally passion, often a manifestation of inner fear, proliferates. Those that caaaan’t, and a parents protective reflex from those who have, are, or will, respond impassioned by their opinions, fears, or pavlovian edicts.
Most importantly, we are responsive, we engage in dialogue fueled by our passionate self-motivation. By some form of miracle we enable ourselves to exhale our passions, both pro and con, inevitably filtering down into hard fought arguments, finger pointing and enamored by those passions, we express.
A passion fanned from current regulation versus “the sky is falling” emotes a testimony exceeding anything we’ve seen on our visits to our temple of choice. I can’t imagine what life would be like in our hobby if we no longer had such passion. Imagine for those of you who shoot from concealment, how mundane your life would be if you were exposed, and for those of you who exploit others with your passionate condemnations, where you would be if such passion were gone forever!
As I sat in a city park last weekend, operating my club station, I was struck with the number of passionate people who stopped by to watch in wonder as I talked to the world with my mysterious language. Fathers holding their children were telling them stories of how they had to learn “that” when they were in Boy Scouts or the military, and there were the whispers from the mothers of: “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
CW (there, I’ve said it) isn’t a pro-versus-con issue, it is however, a passion that transcends the hobby. Is it dying—maybe, but only in the hearts of those who caaan’t only overshadowed by those who woooon’t.
The anger expressed by those who respond is clearly a manifestation of their fear of failing. I am remiss to believe it’s borne from their innate hatred of an existing and preclusive requirement that they must learn. Something, “they’ll never use”, similar to still existing requirements that you take a science or a foreign language before you graduate from college. The perception that we can all snivel enough and it’ll all go away is nothing more than the same whimpering that we heard from co-students being forced to take Philosophy in college. Indeed, English is a second language in a majority of the world, but the knowledge that it is, shouldn’t damper the enthusiasm we’ve shared in learning the beauty of spoken French, English, Russian, or a myriad of other beautiful languages. CW is simply another one of those beautiful “foreign” languages.
Frank/N7UO"
To evoke a passionate response, one only needs to mention a common mode of operation, and we’re into the trenches, lobbing grenades filled with vitriol, fanned by our personal passions.
I am dubious that you are likely to manifest such passion about your choice of breakfast cereal or which coffee shop serves a better latte, but a mention of that operational mode releases a maelstrom of passion. Caustic commentary emerges from the silent majority and claims of “CB” mentality from the “been there, done that’s” are ever present. Unequivocally passion, often a manifestation of inner fear, proliferates. Those that caaaan’t, and a parents protective reflex from those who have, are, or will, respond impassioned by their opinions, fears, or pavlovian edicts.
Most importantly, we are responsive, we engage in dialogue fueled by our passionate self-motivation. By some form of miracle we enable ourselves to exhale our passions, both pro and con, inevitably filtering down into hard fought arguments, finger pointing and enamored by those passions, we express.
A passion fanned from current regulation versus “the sky is falling” emotes a testimony exceeding anything we’ve seen on our visits to our temple of choice. I can’t imagine what life would be like in our hobby if we no longer had such passion. Imagine for those of you who shoot from concealment, how mundane your life would be if you were exposed, and for those of you who exploit others with your passionate condemnations, where you would be if such passion were gone forever!
As I sat in a city park last weekend, operating my club station, I was struck with the number of passionate people who stopped by to watch in wonder as I talked to the world with my mysterious language. Fathers holding their children were telling them stories of how they had to learn “that” when they were in Boy Scouts or the military, and there were the whispers from the mothers of: “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
CW (there, I’ve said it) isn’t a pro-versus-con issue, it is however, a passion that transcends the hobby. Is it dying—maybe, but only in the hearts of those who caaan’t only overshadowed by those who woooon’t.
The anger expressed by those who respond is clearly a manifestation of their fear of failing. I am remiss to believe it’s borne from their innate hatred of an existing and preclusive requirement that they must learn. Something, “they’ll never use”, similar to still existing requirements that you take a science or a foreign language before you graduate from college. The perception that we can all snivel enough and it’ll all go away is nothing more than the same whimpering that we heard from co-students being forced to take Philosophy in college. Indeed, English is a second language in a majority of the world, but the knowledge that it is, shouldn’t damper the enthusiasm we’ve shared in learning the beauty of spoken French, English, Russian, or a myriad of other beautiful languages. CW is simply another one of those beautiful “foreign” languages.
Frank/N7UO"