I'll start this off by saying that I am not very good at forgiving. It is a fault of mine, at times. At other times, I consider it one of my strengths. Too often, I think, people are not held to a basic minimum standard of honor and integrity -- and they are too slow or indeed unable to apologize for their incorrect and/or harmful statements or actions.
I have not been on writing sites for long. I have read much of the back content here in what interested me. That done, I've recently been reading the back-threads in some other writing boards, some of which are authored by those who now post here. To say that what I have read is eye-opening would be an understatement. To say that some apologies are owed by some who now find themselves trying to post here towards some of the folks who have been posting here for a longer time is obvious.
To see that those apologies have not been made public, as the disparagements were, has indeed changed my opinion of some of the folks around here for the worse.
Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes people get on the wrong side of an issue. It is possible indeed to say things that you might later regret.
But if you are going to disparge someone in a public place and then later find out you were wrong -- and now expect to share a public space with them, I think the honorable thing to do is to issue that public apology.
It is easy to talk about honor. It is harder to walk that talk.
I have not been on writing sites for long. I have read much of the back content here in what interested me. That done, I've recently been reading the back-threads in some other writing boards, some of which are authored by those who now post here. To say that what I have read is eye-opening would be an understatement. To say that some apologies are owed by some who now find themselves trying to post here towards some of the folks who have been posting here for a longer time is obvious.
To see that those apologies have not been made public, as the disparagements were, has indeed changed my opinion of some of the folks around here for the worse.
Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes people get on the wrong side of an issue. It is possible indeed to say things that you might later regret.
But if you are going to disparge someone in a public place and then later find out you were wrong -- and now expect to share a public space with them, I think the honorable thing to do is to issue that public apology.
It is easy to talk about honor. It is harder to walk that talk.