Dear Salam,
We are all one community, and many of us on a personal level are friends, and in many cases when we meet at ICANN or some other meetings we try to make the time to socialize and enjoy each others company and presence. In general I would say that we are like a big family. That being said we should not be afraid to voice our concerns or raise topics that seem important to us and the community because we might be misunderstood or deemed having unwelcome tones.
The base of our collaborative work is trust, having this as our starting point is a must. I would claim that we all respect one another and have trust in each other, if we all agree to that, then constructive arguments and debates should not be deemed as unwelcoming to those with different arguments or thoughts. We all work together, brainstorm, and debate to develop creative solutions to a problem and generate ideas. Making counterarguments should not be considered an offensive action, it actually provides an engaging learning activity, improves critical thinking skills and allows us as a community to examine all parts of a problem to come out with what is best. It is not a win-lose action nor does it have the intent of blame or accusation, we work together to maximize our gain as a community.
Finally, I thank you for your email and encourage you to weigh in with arguments, counterarguments, thoughts and ideas. With trust in each other and respect to one another as the base of our discussion and stemming away from the idea of tones and hidden intents everyone will be able to say what he/she thinks.
Kindest Regards
Hadia Elminiawi