I have found myself amongst a group of folks from all over the USA and UK whose focus is the acoustic guitar. It was started in the late 1980s on Usenet by a guy who lives in London and there are gatherings of these acoustic guitar lovers all over the USA and one in the UK every March.

The American members of this group are quite a varied assortment of folks and there are many whose political and religious views are quite far to the right. On Usenet, things got pretty heated during the 2008 election and there are several folks who are no longer speaking to each other and some who have left the group altogether and will never come to another gathering. It's a shame because many of those folks contributed positively to the music.

I am still speaking to many of these folks and continue to call them friends. They are good, kind people who love music, love to sing and love their guitars. But if these relationships are to continue through music, we absolutely cannot talk about politics.

It's too bad that it has come to this in America.

Debra Cowan