Alan J. Pitts
ditto....
Thu Apr 26 14:31:49 2001


My interests are along the lines of Mr. Howerton's, expect that my focus happens to be on Alabama. As anyone can tell, I'm NOT a professional writer and have no current experience in publishing anything. However, I understand and appreciate the concerns expressed by our esteemed colleagues.

As far as responding to queries on the message board, all of us exercise our freedom of choice here. Within the bounds of current message board protocol, we may respond or not as we choose. What someone else does with my response is up to them. If someone else has a flag to market and that person elects to use what I've written for personal benefit, I'm certainly not going to object.

The board has been of great personal benefit to me. Inquiries from the message board have prompted me to improve papers I've already written or begin work in new areas of interest. Recent threads on the A.V.C. in general and the "Calhoun Guards" in particular come to mind. I can also direct queries of my own to individuals who may know much more than I, or post general queries to the board at large. It's a great help to learn from others who know more or have a different perspective on things.

Someone once suggested that those who hope to be satisfied with life should take time to compose an authentic personal mission statement. What do you really want to do in twenty-five words or less. Well, I really want to help interested people understand and appreciate what Alabamians did during the war. If people want to buy things I've written along the way, that's fine. But, bottom line, I want to be able to look back one day and be able to say that I helped folks when the opportunity arose.

If that sounds like the young, naive Tom Cruise in "Risky Business", okay. Meanwhile, I hope to continue responding to queries as I have in the past.