Subject: Re: Thanks
From: Shanna Carpenter <shanna@ted.com>
Date: 5/25/10, 07:36
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

1. Before I insisted on the phone conversation going "the way of my choice," I answered your question. So, we had the conversation you wanted to have first and then I addressed the points I wanted to. Hardly unfair, I think.

2. I understand that I asked a question that deserved a complicated answer. Even so, 12 minutes is an awfully long time to talk without pausing to see if the other person understands, to allow for questions etc. That was my objection, as there were several points I would have liked to address, but felt I had no opportunity to interject.

3. I'm sorry to hear that you think that nothing can be accomplished by further discussion. I won't be able to pass contacts on to you as a result, because I don't refer people to organizations or projects that I don't personally believe in. I think you have great ideas, but I don't understand how you intend to create and maintain sustainable resources that will allow for execution of those ideas.

4. I apologize again for dropping out of your life without explanation. That was completely my fault and I'm not proud of it. Sometimes, I simply avoid situations that I feel are too much for me to deal with. In this case, I behaved that way without regard for how that might affect you and that was fundamentally wrong of me.

Best of luck with everything,

Shanna




On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
I appreciate you giving me that info on Honeybee, and hope that you'll let me know if you come across any other individuals or organizations that I can either learn from or corroborate with.

I don't think we ought to continue our conversation as you suggested, as I don't think there's anything to be accomplished by it, which is why I was hoping to simply briefly discuss potential contacts that would facilitate my organization's ability to most effectively assist Africans, and my ot We clearly have very different views on a number of things that prevent us from communicating productively. I'll be totally frank since I do think I owe you an explanation since we have spent considerable time in a relationship together - I'm disappointed that, after having suddenly stopped speaking to me without providing any reason why, and after having nonetheless insisted that our first phone conversation since that point go in a particular way of your choice, and after having insisted that I ask you what deficits of mine had prompted you to stop talking to me in the first place, and after having noted that you don't see the advantages of the project, that you would actually criticize me for having spent 12 minutes in trying to explain the aspects of a complicated project as well as your apparently central concerns about whether or not I'm crazy. I was explaining all of this as best I could because you insisted that I do so, and because I felt obligated to engage in those sorts of conversations with someone to whom I was close for a period of time, even if you've never felt the same obligation to me. And I took that time to try to answer questions that you had asked me despite the fact that I have several articles due soon in addition to my other work and obligation. And then you criticized me for having spent 12 minutes trying to address those things that had caused you to end the relationship and which you were now asking me to explain, and later stated that I was being so irrational or unfair or something that you weren't sure we should keep talking. I am rarely surprised by things but I was frankly astonished at this.

Basically, there is nothing to be accomplished in both of us taking time out of our schedules to continue this discussion, so I'll just say that I enjoyed the time we spent together and leave it at that.


Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302''



--
Shanna Carpenter
Writer and Community Organizer,
TED.com and TEDActive
TED Conferences: "Ideas Worth Spreading"
shanna@ted.com
1.212.346.9333