Art, my friend, read your own words:

"Folk Mafia" is just a designation to put people who don't agree with you in a bad light. You've probably succeeded.

Please, don't worry about being bitter. It's o.k. Bitterness has a way of turning into real enlightenment when, like pain, it is allowed to teach valid lessons. You folks who spend time paying your dues and trying to get musically and aesthetically "good", please see that it's time well spent. Enjoy it. Find ways to let the hard times be character building for you. Romanticize those. Turn them into literature and love them. These will serve you in good stead when the real hard stuff of life hits you--as it most assuradly will---as attested to by so many of us Mudcatters who have been soothed by this place on occasion----even by the nurturing B.S. threads. Those often seemingly banal threads, just may have helped to save some pretty beautiful minds---if not lives.

That is wisdom, Sir. Those who have this kind of wisdom often don't see it as such. I, and many others, are very greatful for those here that can offer these types of insights. You, Jean Ritchie, Sandy Paton, Dan Milner, and Rick Fielding can share these types of things with us, and folks like myself learn from them. Thanks for sticking around and "passing it on".

All the very best,

Mick