X-Message-Number: 1398
From: 
Subject: CRYONICS  Drawin & Platt
Date: Sat,  5 Dec 92 00:51:22 PST


I was slightly amused by Mike leaving me out of the list of suspension 
team members.  I have been on about a dozen. 

Mike Darwin writes:

>     If  they hope to have quality people in any area of  their  operation 
>Ralph and the others at Alcor must realize that *issues* must be addressed 
>and  that  intelligent people (particularly those who are poorly  paid  or 
>volunteers)  will only work if they are *appreciated, valued* and  treated 
>as colleagues rather than as hired guns or political pawns.

Of all the people I have ever known, I would have thought Mike to be 
among the least likely to have made the statement "will only work if 
they are *appreciated, valued* . . . ."  Though there are rare 
exceptions, Libertarians, Objectivists, and related kinds of folks 
(cryonicists among them) don't seem to be worth a hoot at *expressing* 
appreciation to others.  To give a typical example (and not to pick on 
Mike--he is not the worst), I once did something on a suspension quite 
a bit beyond what was expected.  I know Mike appreciated it, because 
he told other people that he did, but it was only happenstance that 
*I* heard about it.  It doesn't do much good if you keep your 
appreciation inside of you. 

Well, intellectual recognition is certainly a step in the right 
direction.  I have not had much contact with Mike for some time, so I 
don't have any idea of how he is doing with his efforts to improve his 
ability to reward people with a kind word.  This is an area where most 
of us can use improvement, and I think all of us closely involved with 
the pressure cooker business of suspensions should take Mike's advice 
to heart and *express* a little more appreciation for our coworkers.

I certainly appreciate this part of the posting from Mike, and agree 
that issues are important too. 

Charles Platt writes:

>Re:Autopsies
 
>Ralph Merkle told me that he has made contact with his local 
>coroner on a personal basis

Ralph, Naomi and I visited the local coroner some years back.  I made 
the initial contact by letter, and early this year sent a copy of that 
letter to Brenda so the New York group could try the same thing.  We 
were somewhat successful here; our contact was said to have helped 
when an ACS member became a coroner's case in San Jose about a year 
ago.  But I think that in some cases, such as the former coroner of 
Riverside County, hammering the coroner with a lawsuit might be the 
only solution. 

Keith Henson

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