[16391] in APO-L
Apology to Brother Martin
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sven)
Sun Mar 9 02:56:20 1997
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 1997 02:53:23 PST
Reply-To: Sven <asven@JUNO.COM>
From: Sven <asven@JUNO.COM>
To: Multiple recipients of list APO-L <APO-L@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Brother Martin,
Thank you for replying to my message. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings.
I get very angry when I listen to brothers bad-mouthing brothers from
their own chapters without even confronting them first. It especially
bothers me when the brothers doing the bad-mouthing hold leadership
positions within their own chapters that they are badmouthing. In
addition, I find it inappropriate to condemn the actions of brothers in
your own chapter to complete strangers across the world both brothers
and non-brothers. The anger that I felt when I read your message was
further compounded when I read what actions you were condemning them for: Immature, yet normal responses to a potentially funny, while perceived
deadly "injury." The fact that your message was the third message in a
few days talking about quitting as a "solution" to personal conflicts
did not improve my disposition when reading your message.
This is not an excuse for some of the sarcastic statements that I made. At the time, they conveyed the emotions that I felt. The sarcastic
remarks that I made were inappropriate.
I acknowledge that you truly believe the juice was poisoned. Obviously I
find it hard to believe that a soup kitchen will serve poisoned juice to the homeless. However, I will be the first to admit that I am most likely wrong on this assumption.
I imagine if I saw my best friend take a sip of juice, spit it on the
ground, and start coughing, I would probably laugh as the brothers in
your chapter did. If he started hyperventilating, I would try to get
him talking to take his mind off his breathing. I was taught that
hyperventilation is self-correcting and seldom fatal.
The sarcastic comments that I made were far less insulting than what I
said to the computer screen as I read your origional message on this
subject. Unfortunately, I did the same to you as you did to the brothers in your chapter. I was wrong to post my response to your message in a
public forum.
