First and foremost: Thank the gods of "plagiarism software and additional linguistic evaluation," Meteor Blades, Bob Johnson and the fierce troll and zombie hunters at DKos that the insidious, and sadly pathetic Rainbow Girl has been exposed and banned.
Second:
I humbly apologize for anything I did to lend her credibility where she clearly deserved none, especially if it served to extend her stay here.
I also apologize to Master Literary Sleuth Bob Johnson for my intemperate remarks to him personally, and by extension, to his dog Rex, in case I went there.
I have a new found respect for you all, and I will do my best to keep it on display.
I will also pledge to them all to try to live up to my own personal motto to be "open, but not gaping."
I will read your diaries and comments with a new sense of appreciation, recommending them when I believe they contribute something important to the conversation, and on those days I'm mysteriously endowed with TU status, I will use it sparingly, if ever.
What I won't do, however, is abandon my own principles, values and issues, or the others who promote and defend them on these pages.
While a nice slice of humble pie seems like a perfect after dinner course on this lovely Christmas day, I want to assure one and all, I enjoyed the traditional Turkey as a main course, and there was no crow eaten in these quarters.
I was not one of Rainbow Girl's great defenders, as I found myself uncomfortable with her endless prefacing of comments and passages with descriptions of her dire circumstances. Maybe it's because I actually AM a very low income person who considers the word "poor" to be an adjective better applied to matters of health and performance.
Or, maybe it's because as a 57 year old high school drop out and white gay former construction worker living with HIV since 1985, I was both intimidated by her writing skills and education, and felt I had little credibility on issues of concern to a "person of color."
Not that I didn't care about her alleged circumstances, but I know there are wonderful DKos members who can speak to those issues better than I.
It's probably sexist on my part, but my instincts are to defend people under attack, sometimes even if I don't approve of, or understand them.
And if they are being attacked for something so benign as being a low-income person who manages, somehow, as I do, to keep an internet connection to a world they would otherwise be completely isolated from, I feel compelled to take a stand.
I was raised to give people the benefit of the doubt, and if you can't do that, you give them enough rope to hang themselves. I'm happy she's gone, and amazed and impressed with the people who "smelled" a rat early on.
I'm proud of DKos, and that includes many of RGs early "supporters," some of whom I think are being wrongly characterized as seeing her as a heroine. Most of them were just people who, like me, wanted to see a new, and apparently eloquent voice arise on behalf of the downtrodden.
I hope they had turkey or whatever is traditional for them for dinner today, too.
I left a comment in response to someone who understandably, perhaps, felt not enough humility was being shown by those who were wrong or unsure about Rainbow Girl, near the end of of TiMT's real-time diary, and hope it will help explain my thinking on this whole aftermath thing:
I think you might be wrong about "reflection."
If we learned anything, those of us who were insufficiently skeptical, or even those who were outright duped, it was to "reflect," and maybe count to ten before signing on to anything.
Hubris would be evidenced by fierce denials and cross accusations, or acting as nothing happened.
I've seen many individual apologies on these threads since MB made his announcement, and there has been plenty of humility, as I define it, embedded in them.
I've yet to see anyone unhappy that she was exposed for what/who she was.
Remember, even MB said:
- None of this indicates that there were not serious problems with abusiveness (from all sides) in the comment threads of RG's and TIMT's diaries.
The last thing those who care deeply about the issues you, yourself, describe as "valid" want or need is another fraud (remember John Edwards?) putting them self(sp) forward as our spokesman.
If what the more perceptive among us are looking for from those who extended the benefit of the doubt is groveling, that says more about the former group than the latter.
So, sans egg nog, here's a toast to magnanimity in both victory and disappointment.
minor update: I learned some things here, so thanks to all. For whatever reason, the whole sordid episode has me dusting off my old copy of "The Night Listener," by Armistead Maupin. Though the motivations of our mystery "callers" may be starkly different, there are some interesting parallels.