Response To Criticism And Concerns

My reply to comments on the CCC about my deleted post:

Happycat, you’ve been in the punishment corner long enough. I said my piece and you and I no longer have any kind of problem – except this: No complaining that I responded to you in public. You chose the venue of attack, a public forum, in the first place. Other than that, I think the coincidence of me returning and seeing your post, which I do believe was a little out of character for you, and the ensuing blow-up may have actually, inadvertently, done a real service to this forum. I’ll get to that in a bit.

Professor, well, I’m a little surprised. You said:

“When she used the term "tar and feathering" I never once thought she meant that literally.”

From Happycat’s original post:

“I can honestly say now that there are several people who ‘serve’ this country that I would love to see literally tarred and feathered.”

Professor, has the meaning of the word "literally" changed while I wasn’t looking?

Also, you and Quasar mentioned that my post was “laced with profanity.” According to my Word program’s word count function, out of 4,108 words in my post six of them were a very mild expletive meaning either a hoofed mammal of the genus Equus or the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on. Six. And I used * for parts of the offending word except in two cases where I highlighted it as part of another word by typing it in all caps. This could have easily been edited without changing any of my meaning. But, all right, if the use of this mild expletive is enough to give some people on this forum a case of the vapors, well, I think I have enough of a way with words to leave that out of my posts in the future and still get my meaning across.

Kelley, I have nothing to “atone” for. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. I was viciously attacked without warrant. You piled on. You got burned in the return fire. Put some salve on your wounds and get on with life. Quasar – ditto.

And, no, AbbysNana, people who stand up when they’re being bullied and fire back as good as they get don’t need anger management classes. They need to keep on doing exactly what they’re doing when it’s appropriate or the bullies end up running roughshod over them and everyone else.

Now back to what Happycat and I have perhaps inadvertently accomplished. Jules made a very good point -

“But, I also think it's a good example of how someone with what I consider to be rational common sense can be whipped up into a frenzy so easily.”

We would all do well to heed that little bit of wisdom. I think that the result of the dust-up between Happycat and me has lanced a festering wound here on this forum. Professor, judging from the amount of supportive responses to my original post, I think it’s obvious that there is a problem with a significant number of people on this forum feeling justified resentment at the way they are allowed to be treated. Now, you are the moderator and it’s up to you to deal with that any way you want – or not. How you deal with it – or not – will demonstrate to those who feel that way everything they need to know about how they can expect to be treated on this forum in the future and they can make up their minds as to if they want to continue to participate or not. For example, there is a recent topic started by ASULWO titled, “Funny.” It’s not. It’s absolutely demeaning to people of a certain political persuasion who participate on this forum and it is certainly uncalled for and out of bounds. I’ve had the dubious honor, apparently, of being the first person to have ever had their entire post deleted on this forum. I respectfully suggest that ASULWO be the second. It would go a long way towards ending any speculation that there is, indeed, a double standard here.

And that’s about all I have to say for now. But, I can assure you, if I ever see any thinly veiled, or not so thinly veiled, calls for violence or “wolf pack,” behavior on this forum again, well…I guess I’ll end up having an entire post deleted again. And I won’t regret it one bit.