OK, here's how, in my humble opinion:
The forum isn't the same thing for every person. Every single one of us gets something different out of it, puts something different back into it. None of us fit into a cookie cutter mold, and that's good. So you ask how posts like this lend themselves to the mission of the forum? Well, for me, thinking about such topics is mentally stimulating--it makes me think, about what I believe in, and about what I value. For me, the mental stimulation takes my mind off my pain, gives me something better to focus on. I like hearing about what other people believe in, and exchanging dialogues. Therefore, doesn't this achieve what the forum set out to achieve, or am I just being naive? OK, so maybe it isn't on topic. I dare say that if I went and counted right now, I would find dozens, possibly hundreds of other posts that were not on topic. Why single this one out, just because it's touched on a sensitive area? (And yes, I realize my "everyone is different" stance means that there are many of you out there who really hate posts like this and get NOTHING out of them and want them to go away. I'm just trying to point out that maybe not everyone feels that way.)
OK, so politics is a volatile subject, and it's likely we don't want to go there on the main forum. It can be discussed rationally, though, as you've seen in some of the posts here. However, I'll even go ahead and agree with you that politics is dangerous and limit my thoughts in the future. But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater--just because these posts have no value to you and seem to you to defeat the purpose of the forum, I don't think it's fair to think that everyone feels that way. I found that these posts helped me achieve one of my main goals in coming here--they helped me forget, if only for a little while, that I have this disease and am severely limited by it. I know you're looking out for the good of the forum, but blanket statements in this case are a little too sweeping, and I think if we are going to jump on this post for being off topic, we should be more consistent and take all such posts to task. Do we really want that? If it is, then fine, it's the administrators forum to run as they see fit.
I've rambled on enough.
Brad
