It is clear to me that the nature of my post(s) over the weekend offended some users of this site. If one person was offended (and that was obvious), I assume that many more were as well. I am very sorry that this happened. I am very headstrong and will stand up to virtually anyone in person if I think that it is necessary. So, when composing posts or even emails, I tend to sometimes be a bit over the top in terms of sarcasm and/or bluntness. And, in this case, my disdain for a certain class of operators at the top of this market (and no, it is NOT fund managers) led me to phrase my words in a manner that could and probably did offend many who read them. I am ashamed that this happened and I am REALLY ashamed that it happened on this board that I have supported financially. So, to each and every person who took offense at those words, I say this from my heart. I am truly sorry that I did that.
A few years ago (well, more than just a few) I lived in a city adjacent to the one I live in now. The city had its own Electric service and billed directly for it. One problem…….the due date for the power bill was the first of the month and if you didn’t have that bill paid by the third, they cut your power on the morning of the fourth. My dad had a minor heart attack and my mother had taken him to the hospital where he had a major heart attack as they were working on him. He would have died almost instantly from the second one had he not been in the hospital under direct treatment at the time. For several days I ran my business and late in the day drove over sixty miles to the hospital……..got home very late……and repeated the process the next day. I forgot to pay my power bill. On the evening of the fourth I came home near midnight to a totally dark house. The next day I went to City Hall to try to plead my case. To my chagrin and irregardless of my circumstances, I was told that the penalty was over $200.00 and had to be paid in cash to the police department. After they forwarded the money to City Hall, then someone would have to go personally to the house to turn the power back on. I was so angry upon leaving (and everybody in the place knew it) that I went to my house, opened the freezer, placed all of my frozen food in a large bag and returned to City Hall. I walked in, stood right in the middle of the floor and loudly announced my presence. There were 15-20 city workers and customers in there and everybody just stopped what they were doing. In a loud voice I proclaimed that the city’s arrogance would cause me to lose all of this and further said that if anyone was hungry “you can have this food cause I am going to lose it”. I promptly raised the bag high over my head, dropped it in the middle of the floor and walked out. I felt like pounding my chest for a few minutes until the reality of what I had just done hit me upside the head. About thirty minutes later, I walked right back in there (and scared everybody to death when I did). But, with my tail between my legs I asked for the city manager to come out and I promptly apologized in front of everyone for my stupid public display. I feel about as tall now as I did that day.
Sometimes we forget the power of mere words and sometimes the way we phrase them causes them to be taken in ways that we weren’t even thinking of at the time we spoke them or wrote them. I am NOT going to try to justify what I said or even explain the reasoning behind it. Too often, apologies only turn into veiled efforts at self-justification and, my even though my ego could use that, I will forego the exercise.
Also, and except for one possible exception on May 16th, I am going to remove myself from posting on this board until the September/October timeframe, possible longer……..possible forever (and no….this is NOT a fishing expedition).
