Pessimist: I don’t have much hope for that Board statement.
Optimist: Give them a chance to do the right thing. I still hold the faith. Just hang on in there a while longer….
Pessimist: I don’t think they would know the right thing if it bit them on the butt.
Optimist: Look, it can’t be easy for them. They don’t know who to believe – that’s the problem! Their minds have been poisoned against us.
Pessimist: I expect a Nixonian “modified limited hangout”. They will put out a little bit of information in hopes of avoiding the rest.
Optimist: My one fear is that they will announce what they have not found, rather than what they have. The majority of members wouldn’t necessarily understand the implication of that.
Pessimist: I also expect them to use the old rape defense strategy: blame the victim.
Optimist: Surely not!
Pessimist: I think they will try. They will try to make it the fault of the accused that the accusers believed the lies of the cyber-stalker bully.
Optimist: They wouldn’t say that if they had seen him as we had. He sure had me fooled. Mistakes were made on all sides, but shouldn’t stop them from correcting the record. We’re all victims!
Pessimist: Just wait. They will look for any little thing that Dyebat, lchris or Citroenlady, or anyone they ever associated with, has ever done.
Optimist: Guilt by association? This isn’t the 1950s. Is anyone pure as the driven snow? I doubt it. I think they are man enough to fess up that they were taken in by him in the same way that we were.
Pessimist: They probably won’t mention that they had already banned this guy many times and he should have had no credibility.
Optimist: But we all know they have.
Pessimist: Why do you think they believed him without checking him out then? They must have seen an IP match or something.
Optimist: Perhaps he was so convincing that they were completely won over. You remember how he always said what we wanted to hear?
Pessimist: But they allowed members to print lies that broke their own rules on his word!
Optimist: Yes, that is one thing that is unforgivable and very damaging.
Pessimist: I don’t think they have it in them to apologize!
Optimist: Oh – I’m sure they do! Any honorable person would, if the evidence was staring them in the face…
Pessimist: Don’t underestimate one main factor in this; pride. Leaders who are not confident in their leadership might see an apology as a sign of weakness.
Optimist: But to me it would be a reason to respect them.
