Ron,

Prior to my signing the list I gave a lot of thought to that very portion of the pledge. I finally agreed that it was appropriate and signed on. I undertsand how others may feel differently.

I have much more respect for the person who gives thought to the pledge and decides not to sign then I do for the person who signs without giving it any thought.

There is no controversy here. Almost every chipper who hears about slabbing is against it. Some may believe that it is not a threat. Some may believe that a boycott is not appropriate. But almost all say "I wouldn't want my chips in those things."

Unfortunately, even though there is no controversy, one person has declared war on The List. The purpose of the list is to show to dealers that there business will be better off with slabs. No one has ever suggested that everyone who has not signed list is a slab sympathizer.

Unfortunately the one person who has decided to try to make a controversy out of this has repeated it over and over causing two things:

1) An appearance that there is actually a controversy.

2) Some posts from signers of the pledge defending The List, which may appear address the issue of certain people who have not signed The List.

With respect to #1:

If you look back at the archives you will see that attacks on the List came almost exclusively from one individual. But each attack drew responses and counterattacks and counterresponses. Through repition of a supposed fight that one individual has been able to create an impression that there is a dividing line between signers and non-signers.

With respect to number 2 above:

When a person points out that certain large dealers have not signed The List and suggests that they are keeping there options open so they can later sell slabs, this is not suggesting that everyone who is not on the list is going to sell slabs.

I disagree with this, Most of us disagree with this, but I certainly can understand why certain people believe that these dealers should speak out on the issue. In actuality those few who have criticized the larger dealers for not signing The List don't care if they sign the List at all, they would be satisfied with a statement from the large dealers that they do not intend to sell slabbed chips. If there were no list these people would be pointing to the same dealers and asking why they are not speaking out against slabbing.

You can not point to the comments of a few people who suggest that the motivation behind certain specific people's failure to sign The List is that they are going to sell slabs, and draw from that the conclusion that all people on The List believe that all people who have not signed the list are slabbers.

Once we agree that there is no controversy, we can direct our attention to the real issue . . .