George,

I am appalled by Camille Cooper's letter. It is entirely inappropriate, rude, misinformed and certainly uncalled for.

Personal and public attacks of this kind are a severe detriment to our party, committee and community. And no one would be more ashamed of than Emily Couric. Emily knew that you could disagree with people and still work with them by finding common ground. Emily knew that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Emily never publicly attacked people, especially those on her team.

Like Camille, I believe that we should make provisions for child care during our essential gatherings. I also believe that we should hold our meetings in accessible places and at times that do not exclude groups of potential participants. I communicated my thoughts to Lloyd and Rus. I felt I was heard and that next time around, these things would be taken into greater account. I was also somewhat uncomfortable with Lloyd's endorsement of candidates. However, he had every right to do so. If we, as a party, want to amend our bylaws to disallow our committee chairs from endorsing candidates, let's look into it. We should not, however, call for someone's resignation for doing something he had every right to do just because we don't like it. That is quite over reactive and not fair play.

Unfortunately, there are people in this world who always look for the negative in every situation. And like to assign blame. And in the name of helping others, create a divisive atmosphere. That hurts us all, but our candidates most of all. The nominating process is behind us and we should now be working together.

Anyone who knows Lloyd the least bit, or even just reads the newspaper, knows that he spends most of his time helping those who are disenfranchised. He is certainly not resistant to including women, families, people of color or the poor in the democratic process.

Terri DiCintio (electronic mail, March 11, 2002)