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I appreciate Dean's decision not to want to make any "disciplinary action" public. So let me take the liberty to clarify what happened as I do not mind letting people know, and I don't want people to have a negative impression of PalmTalk and the IPS. This is an IPS only forum so please do not share this outside of the IPS, this is our own stuff. As many of you know me, writing is one of my passions, so thanks for reading what I am about to write. I received some not so savory personal messages from someone whose name I won't mention out of courtesy for their privacy. This happened a few months ago. This same person started to post some unwanted stuff in a recent thread of mine, and rather than respecting Dean's request to never engage this person, I chose to respond. Dean promised us both there would be consequences if we did engage again. My thread got deleted and I got very frustrated and I demanded the other person should be removed from palmTalk. The next day I find out I got temporarily suspended. Unfortunately, subsequently, I didn't see any of Dean's E-mails to me because my inbox was programmed to dump all PalmTalk E-mails into a folder that I never read. My perceived lack of communications from the IPS regarding my suspension added insult to injury and I angry because I felt I was treated unjustly. However, a week away from PalmTalk did me some good. After some serious personal reflection, I decided that there were too many cool people involved with the IPS and that above and beyond PalmTalk I was actually an IPS member. It's not PalmTalk that is my home, but it's the IPS, and I happen to enjoy PalmTalk. I also respect Dean's desire to moderate the forum in a way that keeps everyone around no matter what the differences are. Some of us are American, some are Australian, some are European, some are democrats, some are republican, some of us live in tropical paradises, others live in artic tundras. But what we all have in common is that we are Palm nuts. So we all deserve a seat at the table so to speak. I am a big enough person to be able to reflect on my own screwups and look at my own contribution to getting suspended. I am not gonna try to paint lipstick on a pig: getting suspended sucks, but sometimes tempers flare and a short time away is actually healthy. The internet is a funny medium in that our own tapes can project all sorts of stuff onto bits and bytes. I am no more immune to that phenomena than others. If anything, this experience was a clear demonstration for me, because a lot of my own conclusions about some folks on PalmTalk turned out to be so wrong - even down to their voice or how I imagine they look. The reality is that behind every profile on PalmTalk is a real person. It's easy to construct images of these people in ways that fall short of who they really are. My practice on PalmTalk from now on will be to embody the Zulu greeting "Sawubona" which means 'I see you' even if I can only see bits and bytes. Zulu myth goes further and says, "Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu", meaning, "A person is a person because of other people". We are people because other people see us. Palms aren't much fun unless there are others to share them with. Not everyone will see me for who I am, but I can't do anything about that. I can only try to "see" people for who they really are - as all are beyond measure. And I am sorry to those whom I failed to "see", that goes out especially to Dean, on whom I projected the buk of my distain for authority. So Sawubona to all my fellow palm nuts, thank you for putting up with me on PalmTalk. I hope some day to meet you in person so we can laugh about all the silly things that take place on this forum.

With some friends of Palmeraie Union society, we just came back from Madagascar. We did an fantastic trip on East Coast looking for some of the most rare and exciting species of palm. We brought incredible pictures !! ALL PICTURES SOON !!!

Yes the Dypsis hovomantsina is fantastic !!!

Bo is a first class BOD!!! Bo's work in the Palm Society is noteworthy. I enjoy following his adventures thru the social media! He should be a BOD long into the future. Randy