[Rhina P. Espaillat]

On the contrary: calming down is precisely what we all need to do, because what comes of immediate and spontaneous responses arrived at on the basis of too little information is exactly what Anna has had the grace and wisdom to apologize for: "slander and blaming."

Once anyone feels unfairly accused (of misdemeanors that may not even have taken place, like the murder of someone in "The Ox-Bow Incident," who returns to town safe and sound too late, after the hanging of the supposed killer!), it becomes much harder to achieve any kind of reconciliation, as we can all understand if we put ourselves in the place of the unjustly accused. We have already had veiled accusations--the worst kind, because they can't be answered directly--of "financial irregularities" on the part of people I would trust, not merely with my life, but with my grandchildren. The very people, in fact, who created this conference that has proven such an important and valuable part of our lives, by pouring their time and effort, work and money into it right at the beginning and throughout its history.

Had it not been for the way the conference was established right at the start, with its multiple mission of instruction, encouragement of the young, assistance to beginning poets, attention to scholarship and the teaching of form, open and cordial communication among poets and outreach to the public, Kim could never have gone on the innovate as she has done, and accomplish all of the wonderful things that made this year's conference such a delight.

What I feel for everyone who has had a hand in providing the West Chester experience is not a choice between competing loyalties, but rather 360 degrees of gratitude, loyalty and admiration. The mission now is to heal whatever needs healing, not salt the wounds by taking sides where there are probably no sides to be taken. Wounds heal best when they're not picked at; for heaven's sake let's stop picking at this and let's concentrate on minimizing whatever damage has been done to anyone at all!

And that includes the university, which far from "sitting on scandals," as someone put it, has welcomed the poetry conference and the poets, both for the sake of the art and for the prestige the university must derive from hosting something so unique and excellent. Let's avoid the references to buses under which people have been thrown, to scandals and plots and secrets and personal grudges against any portion of this family, which is the way West Chester feels to me.