Common Ground

This post by Tricia Sullivan, and comments by Liz Williams among others, is useful and necessary. Scorched-earth polemics can't be the default reaction to stimuli, in part because they lead us no closer to solutions. Inflamed rhetoric, righteousness, and rigid ideologies of any type tend to corrode communication and thus obscure facts and analysis. We need more analysis. We need more facts. We also need to find ways to build community, and a sense of community, while we do it. Trust, and asking for trust, on the internet, may seem difficult at times, but it's something we should strive for whenever possible.I'd suggest posting over on Sullivan's comment thread to add to that discussion. Here, I say simply: if there's a great anthology or other project you think does a good job of representing writing by women, why not take some time to praise the editors/creators/contributors on your blog or livejournal? We need to recognize that praise goes a long way toward improving morale and energizing people and lifting them up. Public praise also helps signal boost what we love, and make it more likely that what we love will, to put it bluntly, sell well enough to enable more such projects.PS Also note Cheryl Morgan's comments.