[Seac] Exec Brd: The quality of mercy

[Steven Barney <barnes99@uwosh.edu>]

Dear SEAC Exec Board Members:

First, please forgive me for sending an attached pdf file to this list, yesterday. I forgot that this list can't handle them. On the other hand, I have learned that Academic Computing is about to update and upgrade the email list package we are depending on, here. This list may soon be able to handle such things.

Now for the important point of this message. Please keep the following crystalline thought in mind, as you deliberate on matters near and dear, as you decide your humble and faithful veggie friend's fate, and choose your preferred pound of flesh:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
--Shakespeare, _The Merchant of Venice_


Peace be with you,
Steve Barney