Guilty until proven innocent?

I’ve thought long and hard about this entry and have gone from “yes, post it,” to “no, it won’t make any difference anyway” numerous times. So in an effort to clear some of the air here I decided to do this. Also, last time I checked, this was the United States, a place where you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty.

Apparently, according to a lot of you, I made a great mistake when I befriended Art and contributed to the Rescue Zipper fund. When I sent the money I had no intention of getting it back. I sent it out of good will and because I was concerned about Zipper and what his fate would be. I also thought that getting Zipper back would help Art’s emotional state. And I also thought that Rosie was a wonderful person going to all the effort that she did – giving of her time and energy to help Art out not only in rescuing Zipper but in taking him into her home and helping him to come out of his shell so to speak.

I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes at Rosie’s house, although Rosie made some vague statements that things were not all okay. Then Art started blogging about “issues” and the next thing I read is that Art had been asked to leave. When he opened up a new locked blog he left a very negative rant about Rosie. I guess that was to be expected considering the circumstances and Art’s state of mind. I must say that Rosie continued to be a lady and just kind of skimmed over it in her diary, only stating that things weren’t right and that Art was gone. One of the negative comments that Art had left in his blog was a reference as to how Rosie had spent the money collected for the Rescue Zipper fund. I was so taken aback by the reference that I questioned Art in the comments of his LOCKED diary and asked for clarification, which I never got from him. When Art initially sent the email out to his friends announcing that he was opening a new blog, all the addresses were on the top of the email. Obviously someone who was on that list was also good friends with Rosie and felt it their duty to either give Rosie the password, or pass the information on to her, I don’t know which. But it didn’t take long and I received a defensive email from Rosie regarding the question I left about how she spent the money. I also wrote in my diary (http://thelifetimesofolelena.blogspot.com/2008/07/theres-mole-in-our-midst.html ) referencing the fact that I felt someone was overstepping their bounds by sharing information that was supposed to be private and that I found that very distressing. It really wasn’t hard to figure out who it was that gave Rosie the information. I thought I made it plain in that entry that I wasn’t upset about however Rosie had spent the money. That was water under the bridge and couldn’t be changed now. What I was upset about was that someone had so little respect for another blogger who had trusted them with their password, to pass on private information.

NEVER ANYWHERE IN MY WRITING DID I MENTION POOLAGIRL’S NAME AS THE OBJECT OF MY SUSPICION. In fact she even called me after I had posted that entry and asked me point blank if I thought it was her, and I said NO!! We got that cleared up and followed with a nice chat. I enjoyed our visit and told her that I was sorry that I wouldn’t be in Tombstone to meet her in person. I assumed we had the issue cleared up at that point. But I guess not.

She followed with a post that her heart had been broken: (http://poolagirl.diaryland.com/grandheart.html) and everyone jumped on the bandwagon to support her, which I think is wonderful with the exception that it seemed to be at my expense.

Reading comments like the following and knowing they were aimed at me got a little old and hurtful. You’re all up in arms about someone hurting Poolie, but yet it’s okay for you to put out bullshit, make no nevermind about how it makes your target feel. But I guess it shows true colors, doesn’t it. The following comments were posted after I decided to close my blog.

“The good thing is that after all is said and sifted, the people who are real will still be there, and the dead weight will have dropped away.”

And from a different blogger:

“And you are right about the dead weight! It seems to be dropping away as we speak. People that live in their perfect little world and wear blinders, alluding to innocence (HAH!) have no fooking clue!”

One last thing: I DID NOT ACCUSE POOLIE. I DID NOT MENTION HER NAME ANYWHERE IN MY DIARY IN REFERENCE TO THIS ACT OF GIVING AWAY PRIVATE INFORMATION.

I have tried to make this entry as accurate as I can. If any of you who have been part of this fiasco feel it’s inaccurate in anyway, please feel free to leave that information here.

One of the statements that keeps recurring in people’s blogs and in comments is that you should be able to write whatever you want – it’s your diary. That’s my right and I’m going to express it now:

To you who have participated in this mess - Go to hell, all of you.