Good morning Timothy,

I was moved to write a piece to my fellow writers the other day because of a monumentally condescendiing and insulting PM that I received from a fellow Illumination writer. New, my guess, and very young. While you and I both know and lived the history of That One Particular person who was beyond the pale inappropriate, what concerned me is that as the pub continues to expand rapidly, we may be losing the very crisp understand of how we treat each other. I blocked her, which I rarely do, but I don’t respond well to condescension from the Very Young and Uninformed. Especially when it is extremely easy to do a quick check to see where I am not only a top writer (she dunned me for neither understanding racism nor travel).Kinda took the breath away. Back when we began, we had four words (Diversity, Serendipity, etc) which formed our bedrock. I’ve not seen them for a while. Look, that’s not mine to critique, Timothy, we all change. But it strikes me that we need to remind folks of a certain standard. I care far less about highlighting myself, and far more about respect, courtesy and regard. This PMer was patronizing and rude, she didn’t do the most basic of research, and decided to lecture me on what I do for a living. Oh, and have received national prizes for, as well. If I have gotten that kind of treatment, I bet others have too. My hope has always been that this pub did not support or tolerate that. Call me crazy, but if we don’t clarify, renew and constantly underscore what we say we stand for, then I fear we will lose what made this a special place to write. This isn’t just the place to get curated fast. I chose to write here from the outset because of the standards of engagement. We lose that, to me at least, we lose our why. It ceases to be a safe place.