Troubled by the election statement of SFWA Vice Presidential candidate Lou Antonelli, I have responded to his post on this topic. My comment is awaiting approval. Meanwhile, I'll paste it in below
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I believe that Mr. Antonelli's intentions were innocent in that he didn't mean to offend anyone -- I think his honest intention was to be cute and humorous. Ignorance is not a crime. We are all ignorant until we learn better.
What did offend me was that once he discovered that he had been offensive, his first move was not a sincere apology that spoke of his understanding that he caused pain, and a removal of the offending text. Instead, he became defensive, which is inexcusable, and tried to find support for his position.
That's what struck me as wrong. We all make mistakes. We should have a goal to learn from those mistakes in an open dialog and then more forward with better understanding.
I'm not a SFWA voting member, but I do vote within other national professional organizations. I would never seriously consider someone who posted such tactless, aggressive responses to a reasonably worded expression of concern -- not to mention the disregard for and hostility toward the historical & social importance of ethnic identity.
About "canine-american"ext_1320942July 27 2012, 20:46:43 UTC
Well, I think everyone, including Lou, thinks his responses weren't very elegant or even nice. I guess I'm just shocked at this whole argument going on. Is this how conversations normally are at SFWA? I left a pretty lengthy (two, actually) response on Lou's blog (at the link Nisi left, above), so I won't repeat it here, but I am very confused by this whole argument even getting traction. I get people being hurt and defensive, and counter-attacking and all that - what worries me is that those feelings are allowed to run the conversation. It makes me feel like the SFWA wouldn't be a very emotionally safe place for me to be. I'd be afraid of saying the wrong thing and being wrung out to dry. We all have terrible wounds, and people step on mine all the time, but I don't decapitate them for it and it would upset me to be in a place where I wouldn't be treated with the same patience I give other people when I inevitably blunder into hurting someone's feelings. So I guess I'm asking - is this the normal SFWA atmosphere? Thanks for listening
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canines againext_1320942July 28 2012, 04:42:33 UTC
oh and I'd also like to say - I didn't realize this whole thing was months old, because I saw time stamps on Lou's blog so thought it had just happened. I'm so sorry if I dredged this whole thing up again! This probably involves people who know each other and have a history and so it all emotionally contains more than I can see - plus, I think I must have missed a comment from Lou based on responses to the comment unseen by me. In other words - I have no idea what I'm talking about and will shut up now. o~O
Comments 18
What did offend me was that once he discovered that he had been offensive, his first move was not a sincere apology that spoke of his understanding that he caused pain, and a removal of the offending text. Instead, he became defensive, which is inexcusable, and tried to find support for his position.
That's what struck me as wrong. We all make mistakes. We should have a goal to learn from those mistakes in an open dialog and then more forward with better understanding.
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I'm not a SFWA voting member, but I do vote within other national professional organizations. I would never seriously consider someone who posted such tactless, aggressive responses to a reasonably worded expression of concern -- not to mention the disregard for and hostility toward the historical & social importance of ethnic identity.
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