I don't want to be silent on this b/c that feels cowardly so I guess I'll say that I 'get' the letter's intent (& value it) but that some of the letter's wording is problematic to me & that the letter coming at this time seems like an inability to cede a moment
1/5

to a different conversation. Being 'cancelled' is not being killed. I understand that being cancelled is a form of ostracization & can affect a quality of life & this concerns me (admittedly as someone who sometimes learns in public) but right now, in this minute I think
2/5

we need to address the issue of those who have never been invited into the room in the first place, who have never been allowed to voice something, let alone voice it loud enough to turn the heads of those concerned with cancelling.
3/5

This does not mean I disavow the letter writers or the letter. I'm grateful for all the thinking that letter led me to. I'm grateful for the defence of language, literature & argument. I am allowing myself to sit, I guess in two truths simultaneously:
4/5

the letter is making a good case BUT the letter's timing and wording seems to speak over a conversation that was already on the table. A conversation we also need to have. And first. Right now. All of us.

5/5