I'm going to lock and delete this thread, but leave this one message.
First, this message, lock, and deletion is not about "tone". It is about gentlemanly decency in the presence of and towards Godly women.
We're not prudes here. Nor is Pandora, or any of the other ladies who are a minority at IAL. Some of us let expletives fly from time to time, or deal in innuendo and gutter humor when the mood strikes. Others do not. Through it all is an acceptance of the reality that we are not all the same, and do not all have the same ideas about our own personal behavior, online or elsewhere. So we don't censor, and we don't judge.
But we ought to be mindful of the fact that behind every screen name; behind every avatar; is a human being, with a set of moral values, self-ideals, and personal dignity. A person without boundaries across which they do not permit others to tread without objection is a person with no dignity and no self-worth. Hopefully, we all recognize each other as people of dignity and worth, and worthy of being treated as such.
John meant no harm. I know this, Pandora knows it, and so should everyone else. Those who chimed in subsequently meant no harm either. We ought to all trust one another enough to know the truth of this.
At the same time, just because a flip comment directed at someone else is in good humor in our own mind, it does not mean that it doesn't cross a personal boundary of that person. Sexual propriety and feminine decency are important to Pandora, and she has a healthy boundary that were she not to protect and defend it, she would not be true to her own dignity.
So, out of genuine appreciation for the dignity of our friend, I am deleting and locking this thread of my own volition, with the exception of this message. Thank you all for your understanding.
