To Reach Me

I’m getting feedback that it’s a bit difficult to reach me. I know and I wish it could be otherwise. My basic reason is fear. Specifically it’s fear of spam and retribution – not a pretty combination.

Unfortunately these are realistic fears for someone like me. For example, several inflammatory mailings about me were sent to much of my congregation back in the year that we all agree was the worst in our history. I’ve always thought that adage “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” was crazy. The cruel words from that era hurt to the core. They were the worst kind of character assassination, and they came from people I had never done anything to. What I had done was to file a complaint that had nothing to do with them. Their cruelty left me unable to eat or sleep for long periods of time, and gave me physical marks I will have for the rest of my life.

When I met another complainant a few years ago, it was eerie how similar her story was. She too couldn’t eat or sleep. She said she thought of herself as “the walking dead.” She talked about how she would be walking down the sidewalk when other UUs would see her, point fingers at her, whisper to each other and even laugh. She won her case in court. And she is no longer UU.

Actually such malice is just another form of silencing. And it’s very effective. I have no wish to have my reputation dragged through the mud again. On the other hand, I think its important to share what I know so it's less likely that others will have to go through the same hell. Thus to be able to blog feels like a miracle to me. It gives my so frequently arrested voice an arena to speak in. And so far, it feels relatively safe.

To remain safe, I’ve been quite cautious. I have set the comments on Blogger’s most restrictive setting (short of turning them off altogether). If any of you more familiar with Blogger have advice on how best to set commenting, I’d appreciate it.

I thought I’d made it possible to find my email address, but apparently I haven’t. If you are having trouble using the comments or would prefer to email me, my address is uugrrl at mac dot com. I will, by the way, take this down if I start being harassed of spammed. But here’s hoping that those of you who wish in good faith to reach me find this, and that all the nasty spammers don’t.