apology, amendment

Public errors require public confession, and so I'm sharing that yesterday, and then further, this morning, I edited the piece I sent out yesterday to delete a paragraph that shouldn't have been in there in the first place– and then to make some other changes, as well.

Intent and impact aren't the same.

Upon listening to some people, I understand that I've caused harm with those words, and I am genuinely, truly sorry.

Especially during a time of so much pain and sorrow, compounding that hurt – most especially in light of the horrific news being shared today - was certainly not my aim.

My intent– which I am sharing only so that people do not ascribe stories to me that do not exist– was to try to complicate simplistic narratives in light of all the vengeance calls I saw circulating.

But my impact was, candidly, that I potentially contributed the the spread of misinformation, even with all my attempts to try to use hedging language, and a letting of Hamas off the hook for crimes that were unquestionably Hamas'.

Honestly, if I had had more time to work through the piece, been less hit by a chronic pain flareup, if, if, if, I would have been able to filter my thoughts down to what I was really trying to say, which was – not that.

Does it matter at this moment what I should have written instead? (I do have clarity now, but have chosen not to include those lines– the moment has passed and I'm letting that be OK.) I'm not sure. But it's clear to me, having slept on the thing, that those were the wrong words, and in this moment, that's the thing that's important to name here.

And I'm so sorry for that.

The edited piece is online.

I'll be thinking on this further and discussing with trusted counsel with regards to next steps.

Sending love to you all.