Jonathan, yours was the second invitation I got. No thanks though. I'll stick to free-lancing if I can't be a part of MOT.

It is weird not being part of MOT but perhaps necessary. I clearly made a very bad assumption about the team - that because everyone was an adult, they would behave like an adult. It was NOT politics that drove me away. It was the serious lack of respect that some folks insisted on displaying. MOT is an international team and we actually at one point, albeit briefly, had a truly international discussion occurring as several non-US members got involved in the team thread. That's why I did not want to ban any specific topic. As a global team, if we could develop and maintain a global discussion, we could all learn so much from each other, among other things. We couldn't do that. We couldn't settle for routinely ignoring the established rules for the forums here. We couldn't settle for having others in the WCG community seek to have members of MOT banned, and not just on one occasion. We had to disrespect what our members had to offer simply because they weren't Americans and hyperventilate over a solely American topic. Because our views differed from some being expressed, we had to demean and ridicule those who believed differently who, when attacked, returned the favor in kind. I want to say we behaved like a bunch of ignorant provincial Americans but I don't want to insult the ignorant provincial Americans out there by lowering them our level. It does remind me of some of what I saw out of my six to ten year old nephews and nieces that were visiting last week. I don't want to lump everyone together but a team is no better than its "worst" member. I know that some folks just need a change of scenery at times but trying behind the scenes to convince others to leave with you is an open attack on the team you just left. An enthusiastic team member is a great thing but simple common courtesy would have you allowing the captain to make the decision to expand the team to a new project. After all, just maybe there is a rationale, a strategy behind the direction they are trying to take the team. The best part though is being so totally ignored when you ask the team to back off of a particular topic temporarily so that the problems and issues its discussion is causing can be reduced to a tolerable level in order to have time to examine and address the real problem behind it.

Could I come back to MOT? To the MOT I left, absolutely not. Like MOT, I would have to change too. I was part of the problem. I failed as captain. Too many of us have buried friends and loved ones far sooner that we ought to have had to. We are here to do our part to help bring that to an end. Instead, we time and time again chose to insult, denigrate and disrespect those different from us. We might as well have spit in the faces of those we have lost.

You are certainly not an idiot! Well thanks for your kind words-------Good morning Dave and MOT -------