I have been thinking about how to write this post without it appearing like I am trying to skirt responsibility or make light of a mistake I made.
I believe that I am nice. In fact, I think one of my major flaws is that I am nice. I think being nice is, in part, what screwed me that day in the parking lot. Not completely and not to take away responsibility for what I didn’t do that day, but nonetheless, I am nice.
I like being nice. I have been hurt and I have never wanted to be hurtful to someone else. I am not perfect, so of course, I have, but I consciously try not to be mean and hurtful. I have unfortunately had a whole lot of not nice in my life and I try very hard not to be the kind of person that takes advantage of the moment and causes another person harm.
I have had, rarely, someone make comments on their blog or mine that were unkind and mostly based on a misunderstanding of the facts (although I don’t believe he/she cares much about facts) and while it doesn’t bother me, I prefer kindness.
So, here I am this ‘nice” person trying to find her way between standing up for herself and being kind and sometimes I fail.
I saw the picture of a lovely lady holding a gun in a manner I truly believe to be unsafe and scary and I reacted in an unkind way. I knew almost immediately that what I said was not me. The next day I included my thoughts in a post about how I regretted not my message, but my snark because I knew my previous post was not how I want to treat people.
Today the photographer of that photo contacted me in a rather upset way and asked me to remove the photo. I did and she sent a very pleasant email thanking me and the matter was finished. No legal action was going to take place. Full stop. End of it. This is not about her or her email. It is about me temporarily being someone who I am not and wanting to say I am sorry to the young lady in the photo.
I do honestly believe that, that photo could have dangerous and negative effects on new and naive shooters, but the reality is, I could have and should have handled that concern in a more responsible and caring manner.
I hate that I hurt someone and it really doesn’t much matter if you are an asshole on purpose or just a chick with a blog…mean is mean. Harming someone in any manner is not a good thing. I am deeply sorry that something I said did just that.