Bill Greer wrote in message . ..

Those from one location
Should not be quick in condemning the
Protective measures taken by others in other locations.
The people of sci-astro-amateur live in widely varying locations.

True enough. But in my experience, most of the variation is in
people's subjective reactions, not in their objective realities.

But then, one might ask, so what if it is subjective? Does that
make it any less real? Fear is counterproductive to good
observing, just as being cold is counterproductive.

The only difference is that if the fear is irrational, there is
at least some hope of overcoming it by internal discipline rather
than by changing the external circumstances. As a former mountain
climber, I have spent a lot of time doing that. The key to being
a good climber is to make fear your friend rather than your
enemy, to learn to distinguish between rational fears and irrational
fears, to listen very carefully to the rational fears without being
paralyzed by the irrational fears.

In my experience, most Americans live in fear much more than they
should, and their lives suffer accordingly. People were much bolder
when I was a child, and I see no evidence at all that it is the
realities that have changed -- I think that the change is almost
entirely in attitude.

- Tony Flanders