On the sickness of our community

The point people seem to take issue with is the "those people are not part of our community" stance. It probably should have been "those people _should not be_ part of our community". By painting it like they already are outside, you deny that there is a problem within the community in direct contradiction with the "yes we need to do better" part.

Calling it "a sick place to be in" is obviously going to far. But that was just a headline. While reading some parts of Lennart's or Kathy's posts, the words seem appropriate though. I understand that you wish to remind of the good parts of the community at the same time. Using those to set standards for _all_ parts of the community would still recognize the accomplishment while making absolutely clear that there are still issues to address.