Jim,

Excellent post.

I want to follow your comments with a story without names to protect the individual the story is about. I'm sure in retrospect, they will feel sorry for their comments. Now, here goes...

I noticed the slabbing company had shut down early Friday. I made a passing comment about "Gee, I hope they got discouraged and left". I didn't think my comment was that all that bad, but I proceeded to receive a 5 minute or so lecture on "freedom of speech" and "freedom of choice" from another dealer. I actually found it quite offensive, rude, derogatory, and ironically, aimed at limiting my freedom of speech and opinion. Now, keep in mind, this was not a slab dealer, just another one of the 100 or so dealers set up.

Because of what I do for a living, I’m somewhat numb to such treatment and realized it wasn’t personal. Someone had set this person off long before I got there. Curious as heck, I wondered what did it. I talked for a few minutes more and got to the point. This person had stepped away from their table, and while they had, someone had put some sort of a "Slabbers not welcome" sign on their table. They were furious because someone took it upon themselves to "speak" for that particular dealer. I agreed with them and told them that it wasn’t right to do that without their permission.

The reason I bring this up is to show another example of where our passion has alienated another within our group. It scares me that we might end up creating anti- "anit-slabber" sentiment.

Jim, your post is most timely and serves as a warning to us who want to see slabbing go away. We need to be careful with our words and actions.

Bryan