[Ron Fontaine]

As visitors to the Survival Topics forums know, we have a select group of members here. Your varied interests, experience, and abilities are the backbone of this community.

Just as the United States gains immense strength by being the "melting pot" of world culture, this forum is at its best when a variety of viewpoints are expressed and discussed.

Your participation and contributions are of great value to all of us - more so than you may realize in these troubled times, when a mere scrap of information can mean survival for individuals and their families.

I know for a fact that many thousands of people from all over the world are reading your posts and learning from your discussions on everything from from how to make a fire to the best shotgun loads for home defence.

Because you are important to the survival community and looked up to by those who seek information that may save their lives, I hope you choose to hold yourselves to a higher standard. Remember that in this forum you are interacting with real people. Your posts are being read by hundreds of members and thousands of guests from all walks of life. The time you spend here can positively impact the world to a greater degree than you may realize.

This higher standard also means treating one another with respect, even though you will have differing viewpoints and experiences in a variety of subjects. These differences are exceedingly important - in fact, these differences are what give this forum its usefulness and interest to members as well as those in the World Community who drop by seeking survival information.

So continue to post and discuss, and continue to be tolerant of viewpoints that may be different than your own. Remember - we can learn alot from one another. We are all in this together!