Guest - you made a point "That the NAACP reinstated the boycott last weekend after winning a legal case brought against them by Adams Mark, who were seeking an injuction to prevent picketing and the reinstatement of the boycott" which is absolutely true. Again, my comment was that the FA booked the hotel WHEN THE BOYCOTT WAS LIFTED. If those of us who consider ourselves to be liberal wish to stick to our beliefs, it is important to work toward solutions. IF the boycott was lifted, the FA had every right to book the conference there - in fact they may have even had an obligation to work with them first. I repeat, if a boycott is to be effective, then live must be to return to normal. The NAACP's boycott is not meant to drive the hotel out of business - it is meant to get them to change policies and make restitution for wrongs they committed in the past. We have to move forward.

Pete Boom - you wrote "would it stand to reason that their package presented all nice and neat would include a disclaimer along the lines of "Oh, by the way, the little disagreement we had with the NAACP has been sorted out." Well, no. IF the problem had been worked out, why would they need to bring it up? When you travel to the South, do you see signs saying "that problem we had with slavery has been corrected?" It might have been nice if people from the Folk Alliance brought it up so that everyone who voted or made a decision could have worked with that information, but I don't think anyone was under obligation to provide it.

I think we should also remember that the FA isn't the only group using this hotel. I would guess they have 2 or 3 such gatherings PER WEEK by groups with less social commitment then the FA. Has anyone heard what these groups are doing? Not that it should influence our decision, but there might be some good solutions that we are missing.

I question at this point whether there will be a mass boycott by folkies at the FA. We still need to gather the facts and make an informed decision. There has been a lot of knee jerk reactions ON BOTH SIDES of this issue. Let's be glad that the FA conference isn't taking place next week and we have a little time to make decisions.

I don't know what I am going to do. I wouldn't write off the Folk Alliance just yet. While in this day and age the FA serves as a business group more than social activists, there are a lot of intelligent people involved who just might find a comfortable solution.

Ron