"YER SITE ROCKS"
To: Final Testament Guestbook
From: Ken Layne
Date: July 1, 1998
Yr site rocks. I just spent a fine 20 minutes perusing yr offerings, when
I should be editing stuff for tomorrow's issue.
And yr use of Hellenic terms is wonderful. I'm an amateur scholar of Greek
history and writing, and to this day have a hard time believing we came so
close to a civil society some 2,400 years ago and have been staggering
around like winos ever since.
The Greek city-state life seemed to offer a place for everybody, especially
after the Philip-Alexander empire let anybody claim Greek citizenship, as
long as they were interested enough to speak the language and take part in
the culture. (Of course, there's that troublesome slavery issue, but I
often wonder if it's worse to be a slave who can earn his freedom or a
corporate slave who is too scared to ever make a move or take a stand.)
If the weirdos could get over their absurd worries about who screws who,
maybe there wouldn't need to be refuges like the Castro. But as long as
the need exists, I'll be glad to help defend it.
A bit of verse from the lunatic Archilochus, which came to mind when I read
yr stuff about the Thracians:
"Some Thracian now enjoys my blameless shield,
which I unwillingly left beside a bush.
But I was saved; what do I care about that shield?
Let it go, I'll get another no worse."
That little chunk of battered war poetry has always cracked me up.
Anyway, I don't pretend to understand anybody but myself (barely), and
always feel a little weird stomping into somebody else's territory, so yr
words are much appreciated. And, of course, there are times when you say
what you have to say and to hell with whoever gets annoyed on whatever side
of the issue. If my rant is of any use to yr site, help yourself to it.
---the end