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Virginia Zurflieh, editor

In the aftermath of the ABC Board decisions to penalize natural ears in the show ring and, more recently, to move our national specialty, first to Kansas City and then to Wisconsin, without a vote of the membership, the board came in for a lot of pretty harsh criticism on the two major boxer e-mail lists from list members who disagreed with those decisions. Because a few list members were not very tactful in expressing their opinions, it’s no wonder even to me, a staunch Internet supporter, that the new ABC president stated in the June 2001 ABC News Bulletin that he considered the lists "as mainly a form of gossip line and will not respond in any official way to this form of communication..." and added "...the Internet is still inadequate for communicating with the whole membership since only a small minority of ABC members are online."

However, in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks on our nation, which underscored what a powerful and universal communication tool the Internet is, I hope the ABC leadership will reconsider their attitude toward the worldwide family of boxer fanciers represented by the boxer e-mail lists.

How but via the Showboxer-L could we have learned just shortly after the attack on the Pentagon that fellow ABC members Jim Eden and BoxerKate had gotten out of the Pentagon and out of D.C. safely (see "9/11" in this issue)? How else could boxer people in the UK, Scandinavia, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines have communicated -- almost instantly -- their shock, sympathy, and support for their US boxer breeder friends. How else could our Canadian neighbors have swiftly communicated their willingness to house the animals and travelers who were left stranded at Canadian airports by the ban on air travel in the U.S. How else could we have received daily Disaster Relief Updates from AKC president Al Cheaure (via AKC delegate, boxer fancier and Showboxer-L member, Liz Sullivan)? How else could we have communicated to the ABC so quickly (via an ABC board member who is also a Showboxer-L member) the need for financial help for the Search & Rescue Dog teams in Manhattan.

In the June Bulletin, Cal Gruver, the Bulletin editor and ABC webmaster, announced that 2496 people had subscribed to the e-mail list that he uses to notify subscribers that something new has been added to the ABC website. That’s more than TWICE as many people as belong to the ABC! In August, at the large public library at which I work, a like number of people -- nearly 2500 -- visited my branch to use the Internet. Multiply that number times the 22 branches in the library system here in Hillsborough County, FL. Then start multiplying by all the branches in all the FREE public library systems in the U.S. Free access to the Internet and electronic databases is probably the second biggest budget item (after books) at public libraries all over the country, because the people who pay our salaries -- the city and county taxpayers -- need and demand it, and because many of those people cannot afford to own a computer. There is no longer any excuse for anyone not to be "online."

In my opinion, the ABC has a duty to the boxer breed, not just to ABC members. And ABC members -- we who are so quick to express outrage when we think the board has violated our "rights" -- have a duty to make ourselves informed "citizens" of the club. Because some members choose not to avail themselves of the most widely used form of communication in the world today is no reason to penalize the rest of us.