mea culpa

In my last post I discussed some effects of racism on our society as I personally see them. It appears that in some of the stories told, I mislead my message. By no means whatsoever do I want anyone to think that the people here in Rhode Island make me feel slighted or discounted in any way. No one has presented themselves in a remotely derogatory way toward me or to my family at all. In fact it’s been quite the opposite. The entire community opened their arms with welcome and warmth since the day of our arrival.

The rant I proceeded to run with stemmed out of other developments that I witnessed and felt a need to respond to. I received a message that was for lack of better terminology, hate speech. Rather than respond to that piece directly, I made the choice to speak in more broad terms and unfortunately in doing so offended some people. Sometimes I am guilty of putting a cart before a horse. It’s easy to sit here solitarily at the keyboard and believe everyone reading the words will receive in them my precise intent. I lost sight of the fact that writing is only half of the message. The remaining 50% is left up to the interpretation of the reader.

If the message is not accurately delivered, it can be easily misunderstood. If such is the case, it is by no fault of the reader. I veiled my inspiration too deeply beneath misleading examples. I am still a relative newcomer to living in this small town. The wonderful thing is, people here are not at all small minded in the ways far too often represented by movies and television.

I can be extremely sarcastic at times. When asked about the differences between my religion and others, I tend to fall back on those bad habits to diffuse any discomfort as well as attempt to bring humor to the situation. While writing this piece I used such tactics again and highlighted some of those instances. My intention was not to make anyone else seem ignorant or stupid in any way. I featured my sarcasm in an attempt to be funny and did not mean to belittle other people.

I could not absolve myself if I let my original intentions be further misconstrued. Please know that my post was not a matter of Jew vs. Christian or Atheist vs. Believer. I begrudge no one their faith. I am still working on my own and plan on continuing to do so well into my later years. Life is a process for all of us. Each individual should be allowed the ability and the freedom to chose for themselves. Especially in the arena of religion.

Once again, I apologize to anyone who might have been offended.

Thank you for reading. It means more to me than you know.

-alex

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