I answered someone's mail in response to the newsletter with a smile face, I meant to be friendly. I have gotten three scathing mails back!

Apparently I am trash? Why talk to the garbage can?

I never would have guessed a smiling face would piss a person off. She must have thought I was mocking her but I was not.

Mars in Virgo opp Venus in Pisces.

I swear one of these days, one of these people is going to shoot me.

Jesus Christ! How dumb can one be?

:(

For the record, my sad face is an indicator that (a) I am sad you get attacked so much and (b) I am sad people are so motherfucking stupid.

if the threats ever come at you life action, i'll take a pool to fund building you a pope bubble...

whoa...projection machine, that one. Scary.

I'd take a smilie face. Service with a smile, right? Here, you can have one too

i hope not.  it's easier to be an a$$ over the net.  unlikely any of them would really be interested the kind of EFFORT that would take.  but a little homeground obscurity never hurts... :/

I seriously hope not :(

I like smiley's :)
Anige

What a douche!!!! Did they want a long letter reply back??!! WTF is wrong with people?? I find that people seem to have a lot more balls online, half of them would never attempt this shit in person.

O_o

Sensitive, much?

People are pretty freakin' touchy this week, that's for sure.

Ugh

Not cool ! : (

That bitch deserves this instead: 

LOL, rant!  And thanks for the collective outrage.  I just step in a pile of shit every few steps... :eyes wide:  Wearing, Annalisa's clothes no less. :)

Elsa don't get upset by these things, please don't. The world is full of douches and most of them are online. You're too kind, answering individual comments on the newsletter, as it is.

If people want to make a comment on your newsletter they should come on the Boards to do it, and if there isn't a thread they could start one

Come to think of it, you could start one each week as you send out the e-letter, and put a link to it at the bottom, with a note: "Sorry but I don't have time to answer indiviual emails on my newsletter - please post your comments and queries HERE: [link] "

People are pretty freakin' touchy this week, that's for sure

Jeez Louise, you can say say that again...  and some are in my house, myself included. It's requiring all my patience and self-control to keep the atmosphere friendly... I've looked at the chart of the person being most volatile, which I luckily had complete with tob, and that's what's prompting me not to blow my stack: Mars in Virgo is playing merry hell with some of his major planets (Sun Pisces ++)

People like that are cowards deep down.  The Internet gives them the "courage" to be a flaming asshole that they lack IRL.

They talk big, but if they were ever face to face with you, they'd run.  Snively pathetic shits.

cowards and idiots, that's a nasty combo. I'm sorry you have to deal with them, Elsa.

Elsa, one I wrote the friendliest poem about Canada, and how they used to feel like neighbors and now we have to have a passport and then I went and did something else over the weekend.

One of the alchoholics on that site took offense and a flame war started and four or five pages of posts (pages being 25 posts long) with Canadians and Americans arguing and the whole time I was blissfully ignorant.

And then the mods came and cleaned it all up and it was all over but the shouting.  I had to piece it together through the emails I received later.

To me, it was perfectly clear what I meant...to Mr. Addlepated, I was insulting his home country (how I have no idea, there was nothing derogatory in there that I could see)  I love Canadians, always have and always will.

Well, brizo, they call me racist and I risked my life to give evidence against KKK murders. It's a little much.

I had live underground for 10 years because of that.  Pretty thankless.

No wonder my husband and I get along.

hmm, I have never thought of you as racist.  As a matter of fact, you've made several comments here and there on the boards and blogs supporting diversity.

Talk about deluded. It's quite obvious Elsa is one of the least racist people in the universe. She's even stated more than once that she moved to a racially mixed area specifically so her kids ran NO risk of growing up with prejudices.

People really should do thier research before slinging mud around. Neptune on the MC indeed - but it's about themselves and their own blindness, not you Elsa

Well I also hate gays, have you heard?  This is spite of having a life-long friendship with a gay man (who happens to be 1/2 black) and lesbian friends dating back to 4th grade.  My nephew is gay too and I have one hell of a lot of gay clients!

Ben told me once, I was the least homophobic person he had ever met in his life. This was after knowing me 10 years and he said this included all the gay people he'd known in his life!

"You mean gay people are more homophobic than me?"

"Yes!" he said. 'Way more homophobic..."

Now Ben has lived in both NY and San Fran and he said, he could not figure it out at first but evenutally he did. I truly don't care if you're gay!  Of course that means, no special treatment, see? You're a person and I am person and that's it.  Same thing with your race. I do not see people as downtrodden, I see them as people.

Ben actually told me that he had become less homophobic himself, by copying me.   How's that for inside out?  How's that for 7th house Uranus?

Anyway, people need a bad guy, it's a song as old as time.  I'm her. My husband is him, even though we've both done nothing but give, our entire lives.

"Gay people are more homophobic"

Elsa, that would blow apart more than a few media myths.  I didn't know that up until now.  Really.

(But that comes from living in Phony RHONJ Country.)

Well he said that and elaborated but this was a number of years ago. 15 or more.

I had no idea he was half black.  Most would have mentioned his ethnicity as a descriptor so how's that racism accusation now?

The point is, I am mistaken for all kinds of weird shit and it get irritating. Just recently I was tagged a teacher-hater. What?! This stuff is just insane. I can't tell you how disturbing it is.

Today I got a mail from someone who thought I was mad or disgusted with them. I had no idea what she was talking about. I have never had a bad thought about the woman in my life.

This stuff make me afraid to...to do anything, say anything.  I think it's pretty clear it will eventually end my sharing here. I will find another way and I am working on that now, more committed then ever.

You ought try this.  You wouldn't believe how hard it is. I can only do it because I have 11 years of practice. I feel like I wake up in the morning and people are pissed for like...1100 reasons, I can only imagine.  It's just stunning. I get called a cunt for sending someone a smiling face like this ->

Now what am I to do?  What could I have done better, frowned? I am LOST.  I am lost in the public eye and just weary as hell of being the designated *whatever*. I really do want off the train. Put someone else up here and y'all shoot at her for awhile. 

It's easy to say "It's not you, it's them" and I'm sure you know in your mind that's true; but I understand why it's so hard to rise above it.

Jeez I get upset when just one poster here misconstrues me or implies I'm a [whatever] because they've disagreed with one of my opinions. And I hate being silenced in order to avoid that negative feeling, too.

So it's hard to imagine how you deal with this, multiplied a thousand-fold. I don't know what the answer is, or how you grow a thicker skin