Ms. Kitty aka Rev. Kit Ketcham Has Shared Her Concerns With Pacific Central District Trustee Linda Laskowski
Here is my revised response to Rev. Kit Ketcham's comment posted to UUA Trustee Linda Laskowski's 'The Observer' post on her 'UUA View from Berkeley' blog. I posted a version of it to Linda Laskowski's blog but it may not be published. Rev. Kit Ketcham aka Ms. Kitty is cordially invited to respond to my response to her comment here in a manner that honors and upholds U*U principles and ideals -
Well said Ms. Kitty, but it would have been better said if you had been a bit more just, *equitable*, and compassionate in your comment and had publicly deplored the actions and words of *some* of your fellow bloggers, who happen to include some deeply insulting and outright abusive "less than excellent" U*U ministers.
My "hurtful words" are payback for many years worth of insults, condemnation, and abuse heaped upon me by intolerant and/or abusive U*Us. I try to ensure that only those U*Us who have insulted and defamed people, or otherwise verbally abused me and/or other people, or who have condoned and enabled such insults and abuse get the back of The Emerson Avenger's virtual hand, usually by making them chow down on their very own insulting and defamatory language with my "Eat Your Words Diet".
You are very well placed to publicly acknowledge that when U*Us use their round heads to change their minds about me, and choose to behave in a manner that honors and upholds U*U principles rather than making a total mockery of them, that I use my round head to change my mind about them. For the record there are a good number of U*U bloggers who I have had quite cordial and mutually respectful relations from Day One.
Why?
Because they treated me with dignity and respect when I shared my concerns about various matters, including some quite "difficult" ones, on their blogs. U*Us will be hard pressed to find any evidence of me going out of my way to insult Rev. Cynthia Landrum or Rev. Ricky Hoyt, or indeed a fair number of other U*U bloggers who have refrained from attacking me.
My policy of returning abuse for abuse goes back several years now, and I do not *always* exercise that prerogative, but as long as "less than excellent" U*U ministers are allowed to insult and defame people with complete impunity by the UUA and MFC, and "less than perfect" individual U*U churches, U*Us can be quite sure that the dreaded Emerson Avenger will be throwing their "graceless and rude", "insulting and defamatory", hurtful, harmful, and indeed quite damaging "less than professional" behavior right back at them.
The faster that the UUA Board of Trustees and the Rev. Peter Morales administration move to responsibly remedy the U*U injustices, abuses, and hypocrisies that I have been exposing and denouncing for over a decade now, the sooner The Emerson Avenger will tone down his *act*. U*Us can have the Robin Edgar who showed up in person at the April 2010 Board meeting and shared his concerns about the UUA's unjust, inequitable and far from compassionate (mis)handling of clergy misconduct complaints in a very calm, reasonable, rational and indeed dignified manner, or they can have The Emerson Avenger "poking fun" at U*Us for quite some time yet. I would prefer that U*Us choose the former fate rather than the latter one.
Well said Ms. Kitty, but it would have been better said if you had been a bit more just, *equitable*, and compassionate in your comment and had publicly deplored the actions and words of *some* of your fellow bloggers, who happen to include some deeply insulting and outright abusive "less than excellent" U*U ministers.
My "hurtful words" are payback for many years worth of insults, condemnation, and abuse heaped upon me by intolerant and/or abusive U*Us. I try to ensure that only those U*Us who have insulted and defamed people, or otherwise verbally abused me and/or other people, or who have condoned and enabled such insults and abuse get the back of The Emerson Avenger's virtual hand, usually by making them chow down on their very own insulting and defamatory language with my "Eat Your Words Diet".
You are very well placed to publicly acknowledge that when U*Us use their round heads to change their minds about me, and choose to behave in a manner that honors and upholds U*U principles rather than making a total mockery of them, that I use my round head to change my mind about them. For the record there are a good number of U*U bloggers who I have had quite cordial and mutually respectful relations from Day One.
Why?
Because they treated me with dignity and respect when I shared my concerns about various matters, including some quite "difficult" ones, on their blogs. U*Us will be hard pressed to find any evidence of me going out of my way to insult Rev. Cynthia Landrum or Rev. Ricky Hoyt, or indeed a fair number of other U*U bloggers who have refrained from attacking me.
My policy of returning abuse for abuse goes back several years now, and I do not *always* exercise that prerogative, but as long as "less than excellent" U*U ministers are allowed to insult and defame people with complete impunity by the UUA and MFC, and "less than perfect" individual U*U churches, U*Us can be quite sure that the dreaded Emerson Avenger will be throwing their "graceless and rude", "insulting and defamatory", hurtful, harmful, and indeed quite damaging "less than professional" behavior right back at them.
The faster that the UUA Board of Trustees and the Rev. Peter Morales administration move to responsibly remedy the U*U injustices, abuses, and hypocrisies that I have been exposing and denouncing for over a decade now, the sooner The Emerson Avenger will tone down his *act*. U*Us can have the Robin Edgar who showed up in person at the April 2010 Board meeting and shared his concerns about the UUA's unjust, inequitable and far from compassionate (mis)handling of clergy misconduct complaints in a very calm, reasonable, rational and indeed dignified manner, or they can have The Emerson Avenger "poking fun" at U*Us for quite some time yet. I would prefer that U*Us choose the former fate rather than the latter one.
Comments
I have found that it works better to be respectful, even when hurt by others' words or actions. I can't condone your hurtful behavior towards those who insult and malign you any more than I can condone their hurtful behavior toward you.
I do appreciate very much your respectful behavior toward me and my blog; we've had some good exchanges. I hope that is not going to change.
Sincerely,
Kit
I seem to recall Jesus taking a whip to the money changers at the Temple Ms. Kitty and, if my memory serves me well, Jesus was no slouch at using "hurtful words" to criticize hypocrites etc. Quite frankly The Emerson Avenger is a sweet little pussycat compared to Jesus of Nazareth and he injects a fair bit of humor into his "hurtful behavior". You might want to read the Book Of Revelation again for the first time to see just how well Jesus lives up to his admonition not to return evil for evil. . .
The fact of the matter is that I have been as respectful as possible under the circumstances many times in the past only to have hypocritical U*Us willfully ignore, irresponsibly dismiss, and unjustly reject my dignified demands for some justice, equity and compassion. The "hurtful words" of my "eye for an eye" retributive justice are a direct result of U*Us abjectly failing and obstinately refusing to provide some genuine *restorative* justice to me and other victims of the *hurtful* behavior of "less than excellent" U*U ministers. I might add that my "hurtful behavior" is every bit as much "within the appropriate guidelines of ministerial leadership" as the "hurtful behavior" of Rev. Ray Drennan, Rev. Victoria Weinstein, and any number of other "less than perfect" U*U ministers.
I see no reason why my respectful, and even friendly, behavior towards you would change unless you gave me very good reason to lower the level of respect and friendship that you have earned by daring to publicly acknowledge your own "less than perfect" behavior towards me in the past, and showing a reasonable amount of respect for me.
Best Regards,
Robin Edgar aka The Dreaded Emerson Avenger :-)
"If you want to be loved be loveable."
I extend that principle to parallel bon mots such as -
"If you want to be respected be respectable."
"If you want to be honoured be honourable."
As I have said before. . .
I think that I need to reiterate and underline the fact that whatever is said on The Emerson Avenger blog falls *within* the incredibly lax, if not completely non-existent. . . "boundaries" that the UUA and MFC have so foolishly set for the behavior of U*U ministers on the internet. The only difference is that I am prepared to sign my name to my calculated justice-seeking retributive "hurtful behavior" rather than hide behind the cowardly cover of internet anonymity. The basic underlying principle behind the following words of Rev. Dr. Tracey Robinson-Harris, highly questionable words which were officially endorsed by MFC Executive Secretary Rev. Beth Miller, and no doubt *also* approved by UUA Executive Vice-President Kay Montgomery, is that *any* U*U minister can say absolutely *anything* that they care to say about *anyone* as long as they do so under the cowardly cover of internet anonymity -
"It is the case that in this situation the minister’s blog is anonymous ( though you were able to identify the individual) and that she is free to express her opinions and to do so outside of her professional role as a minister serving a congregation."
The question arises here as to just why I, or anyone else, should hold themselves to higher standards of behavior aka stricter "boundaries and limits" than "less than perfect" U*U ministers are held to by the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations and its very aptly named Ministerial *Fellowship* Committee. . .
N'est-ce pas?