An apology to the group

[Kelvin Mace]

This past weekend I responded to a post from this group that upset a few people and caused unnecessary discord. My carelessness in posting meant I failed to note that I was NOT posting in GD which is my normal haunt, but in this group where folk expect to be able to discuss President Obama without the acrimony that is arises from people less than happy with his policies or actions.

In mitigation, I did not directly insult the president, I indirectly insulted him by impugning his coming successor claiming that person would be as bad as the current president. When called to task on this, I got snarky with Irishayes, not realizing that I was in the wrong venue for my remarks (when I said forum, I was referring to DU, not this group) and came across as a troll. No matter my intent, my actions were unacceptable.

To say I am mortified and ashamed is a bit of an understatement. While I am no shrinking violet when it comes to "spirited" discussion on DU, I never would have posted in this group in the tone which I did if I had paid attention to where I was. I do not offer this as an excuse, but an explanation. The failure to know where the hell I am is mine, and mine alone.

My actions got me booted from the group, something that has never happened to me in the 10+ years I have been on DU, so I am doubly ashamed. I sent a PM to the group admin (SheShe2) and asked to be re-instated so I could apologize from my disruptive actions.

The danger of spending a lot of time on political forums like DU is that unless you are on your guard, you can become cynical and bitter. Unfortunately, I have allowed that to happen of late and allowed it to cloud my judgement and certainly my powers of observation.

So, I apologize for my childish actions and ask your pardon for disrupting your group. I apologize here to Irishayes and SheShe2 and promise spent more time pondering my words before hitting the "post" button.

My thanks to to SheShe2 for allowing me back on to try and mitigate my foolishness.

With respect and chagrin,

David Allen (no relation to Skinner)

[sheshe2]

1. Well said~

I for one readily accept your apology.

I appreciate the sincerity of your response to me and The Barack Obama Group. I know that others will feel the same.

I thank you, David. You are an honorable man.

~Carol

[mountain grammy]

2. I missed the post, but your apology is eloquent and clear..

and we all occasionally forget to pay attention to where we are. Nice post, David.

[grantcart]

3. Thanks for the note.

Obviously it wasn't intentional.

Good of you to set the record straight.

[IrishAyes]

4. I'd buy it except for one thing, Kelvin:

To start an 'apology' by first trying to CYA - claiming you didn't realize where you were, when you had been told more than once and your writing clearly shows intelligence and a sharp, clear mind - I don't buy that part, and it makes the rest suspect. I'd have been a lot more impressed if you'd just admitted outright that you did know exactly where you were (especially after the warnings) and you knew exactly what you were doing to boot - but at the time you just didn't care. Then you could apologize for what you actually did, and it would be a lot more credible. Otherwise how am I to think anything beyond 'corcodile tears'? Pretty words don't cut it.

Which is not to beat a dead horse. At one time or another in life we've ALL pulled the same stunt, for reasons good, bad, or indifferent. If we truly repent and wish to make ammends, we can't backscatter first.

[Kelvin Mace]

5. I did NOT know

despite what you may believe. The posts that informed me of my error I read AFTER I had already been banned.

Why would I even bother to apologize if my original intent were to troll this group or simply stir the pot?

My apology is offered sincerely. My words carefully chosen to avoid, as much as possible, the misinterpretation due to the ambiguity of the written word in an online context. You are, of course, under no obligation to pardon me for my mistakes and boorishness.

[IrishAyes]

6. Didn't mean I wouldn't pardon you. Said I'm sure we've all been down that path one way or another!

Regardless, of this I'm certain: you'd make a fine asset to our group, and you ARE welcome by all as everyone's full equal. I spoke to you as I would to a brother. I'm also a damnYankee and not always good at smoothing ruffled feathers.

Shall we start over?

[Kelvin Mace]

7. By all means

Interesting thing reading your profile, other than the fact that you grew up in the North (I in the South, mostly), we have a lot of similar experiences. I am half Irish (my mother was from Dublin) and my father (from WV so that was a mix) was in the Marines and the Air Force, thus I spent a lot of my early life at various military bases until he died when I was six (I was born at Camp Lejuene in NC). I was raised Catholic, went to military school for six years and am utterly mystified as to why Britain could give Hong Kong back to the Chinese, it can't give Northern Ireland back to the Irish (I have relatives in Enniskillen, just outside Dublin and an aunt in Locarno, Switzerland whp married as Swiss national).

I am unapologetically to the left of Ghandi in my politics.

Currently I live in NC, which has suffered greatly as our government has been bought by billionaire Art Pope who pretty much runs the state and is busy destroying the North Carolina's former reputation as the most progressive state in the South.

[IrishAyes]

8. Well, I imagine quite a few good Democrats disagree with the President from time to time and to

some degree. Other times we might not quite understand where he's going, at least not at first; though most of us have been amazed and pleased at the eventual outcome. You'd not be abandoning your own beliefs by putting your shoulder to the wheel and helping move the country leftward in a realistic manner that recognizes where it is at the moment. The race doesn't always go to the swift. I personally consider myself to the left of Kucinich and Wellstone, surely. But it has no adverse effect on my respect and wish to help what Grantcart has called 'process Democrats', those with the responsibility for executing the popular will. At this point you and I are not really in the majority, although I suspect some of our leaders are more sympathetic than practicality allows them to show. So far President Obama has proved remarkably effective against the stonewallers; I honor and appreciate his efforts and service to the nation as a whole. No one, absolutely no one, could've done any better or even come close. Moreover, he's clearly a man of compassion, something of which the GOP knows nothing.

Please don't make the mistake of letting a nascent third party woo you away. That would be a grievous tactical error. We stick together or we're all sunk. Working together, we'll get a lot closer to achieving things on that list; if we die before it's possible to finish, then it's up to the next generation to continue.

[Kelvin Mace]

9. I consider myself a liberal first,

and a Democrat way down the line. I have seen too many Blue Dog/Vichy Dems to grant them any blanket endorsement.

As to putting my shoulder to the wheel, I spent about six years working on the e-voting issue to insure honest vote counts, at great personal financial and personal cost, so I am a lot more sparing in my efforts these days. I will help get out the vote, write letters and engage people in discussion to clear up the lies and distortions the Right is spewing, but that is about all I can manage of late.

I have no intention of backing a third party, as I do not think one can win, but I really do believe we need more than the two parties we currently have. The Teabagger crowd might split off from the GOP and that would be VERY good for our side. But I really wish we had some leverage to force the Democratic party to the left the way the Teabaggers force the GOP to the right.

The one issue I believe we must make a reality if we are to have ANY chance of accomplishing reform, is public financing of campaigns. Politicians work for whoever writes the checks, that means corporations and the 1%, not the voters. When the voters are paying for the elections, then politicians will work for us.

[IrishAyes]

10. Well, we're a big tent party so there won't ever be ideological purity, which is in the eye of the

beholder anyway. I have no more use for Blue Dogs than you do. And I appreciate everything you've done; we all owe you a great debt of gratitude. Just don't let anyone - even the turkeys who slipped in under the tent flap - discourage or slow you down. With your last breath you'll be glad. And try to remember that long arc of justice. We won't always live to see the beneficial results of our political gardening. Even if there were never any results and we were doomed forever (which we are NOT) it wouldn't lessen our obligation to fight for every square inch of ground in the least. Let's just proceed in the most effective manner possible, and I've found that's generally in tight formation.

[Kelvin Mace]

12. Thanks

for they morale talk.

I think I need one every now and again as I am coming out of a dark period into that reassessment time that comes when you move past 50. I work around a LOT of conservatives and the venom is corrosive at times. Hard to avoid getting some on you when you are around it so much.

[IrishAyes]

13. I understand. Because I had to slip-slide into early retirement on a wing and a prayer,

I couldn't afford upstate Maine, where I'd prefer to be. Though considering their present governor, maybe that's just as well. I had to look for a place in the MidWest where the climate resembles ME but the cost of living's more affordable. Most of the people are TP types to one degree or another. Mostly they're xenophobic as hell, and it colors everything else in their world. Robert Reich had a good post on FB today about fear driving this senseless voting against one's own best interests. That's why red states have worse unemployment than blue states, and it's exactly what the plutocrats want: a cowed wage slave population. Trouble with feeding that fire is that eventually the pot always - always! - boils over one way or another, sooner or later. Until then, many of the victims develop Stockholm Syndrome.

Well, anyway, I like Robert Reich. I like Krugman, too.

[IrishAyes]

11. PS: re profile, I didn't exactly grow up in the NorthEast. Army brats with a career military dad

learn to pack fast and travel light. We were fortunate to live on base during many deployments, although of course we went back home to upper Maine when we couldn't go along. That's where my dad grew up, though, because his father and grandfather farmed there. Even though they were certainly military in Ireland, with manufactured Welsh identities to allow immigration, they could hardly afford to interface with authorities any more than absolutely necessary. Low profile.

Dad was born here, though; so it was safe for him to go Army. We weren't allowed to know all that much of recent family history until we were old enough to be discreet. My kid sister never found out until Granddad and G-G were gone, and then I used to embarrass her with it. Yes, on purpose. She was the family twit. I think that's a much kinder term than idiot, don't you?