Today I hit reply all instead of replying to the one person I intended. That email then went to everyone on my Class of 88 listserv. It was an alternative link I intended to send to someone living in Germany who had a question regarding some of the political back and forth debating that was going on in the community (specifically to a set of links someone posted about Acorn and Ayers). I didn't want to get involved in it or enflame it, but I also thought that maybe he hadn't seen the video I was sending (I don't know what they get over there in Germany) and that maybe he'd like a different viewpoint than was being presented on the listserv as he seemed more on my wavelength from his previous posts, blahblahblah, so I wrote him a little message.

Except someone (named Kristin!) walked into my office as I was writing, I jumped and hit a wrong button, and it went to everyone. Also, I forgot to include the link! (duh)

I read my email to Monkeys when I got home, and he agreed that what I wrote was not at all argumentative or offensive (thank goodness). Still, it was not something I wanted the world to read. The person who posted the links in the first place actually sent me an apology if his links offended me. I successfully wrote him and only him back saying I bore no ill feelings. No one else has responded. Other people have sent other emails that do seem more argumentative, so people are focusing more on those and not on mine. That's good, because I don't want to be noticed. It's also bad because I am afraid people might stop being civil if they keep writing about it. I know people should feel comfortable enough to express and discuss different opinions, especially if we as a country are to work together to heal divides, but it does feel uncomfortable, and no one seems to be changing opinions just exchanging words. There is a lot of refuting statements (he's a muslim/no he's not, i read this/well i read that). Last year we went through a similar phase of Bush rocks/Bush sucks emails, where someone insisted that as our president we should support him regardless of whether or not we agree with him. Some (liberals?) objected. Now, it's being reversed as Obama supporters are saying the same thing to objecting (conservatives?). I would like a bit of a break from this.

On the bright side, they all know about the meteor shower now.

I feel so dumb sometimes!