I’m sorry to Patricia Dunn

Yep, you went too far. Nice to hear this from you.

Even though I haven’t always agreed with what you have said, I keep coming back because you have the balls to stop and turn the mirror on yourself tell the world what you see.

AND tell the world what you see.

If you didn’t know that she was a cancer survivor, your intent obviously was simply to create a metaphor without a second (personal and hurtful) meaning. I tried to think of another, more appropriate metaphor describing the impact of a person without regard (comprehension?) of the ethical implications of their actions on a business with which they are associated. I could think of nothing more appropriate that couldn’t be construed as being equally insensitive to some person somewhere. If you meant no harm, why apologize? You only have control over what you transmit… responsibility for reception falls on the receiver.

Wonderful to read that someone with the readership you do can step back and rethink the words you use. Taking a moment to pause often gives me the time to think and generate a message with real meaning.

It’s a commonly used phrase and even people who have been through it understand that. Think about it – in every day life we say things that could potentially hurt people who have suffered through something we haven’t. Saying something like “someone please kill me” when being forced into some stupid change at work, not realizing someone else is standing by who just lost a loved one to suicide or something.

I think we need to be sensitive to others, but people who hear these things also need to know (and usually do, I think) that they are expressions that are widely used and are not meant to be taken literally. Working with someone who has suffered great loss recently, I know this person understands the phrases used in conversation that could unknowingly remind them of their situation are just phrases and it’s just how we say things. To take it as more than that or be upset or offended by it is pointless because you can’t go anywhere for fear of hearing similar statements from others around you.

Oh, yeah, and I don’t think her resigning as chair but staying on is sufficient. She should be out of there. Accountability sucks, but it’s time it became policy with these people making these decisions.

Glad you did this Robert!

“I’ve been thinking about it all day and I’ve decided that my reader is right.”

Hrmm, you sound so reluctant to admit this.

Anonymous: when you do something and someone tells you you’re wrong, do you immediately agree? You’re a better person than me if you do.

An invasion of personal privacy hurts, perhaps as much as the pain of an invasive disease. I’m not a cancer survivor but I have felt the pain of having my personal privacy violated, my personal emails spawned into the reading files of bureaucrats and some of my private photos photocopied and passed around for laughs. Most of these data were compromised through pretexting.

It takes a long time to recover from cancer. And it took me a long time to recover from an invasion of my personal life. In my case, it meant moving out of the country away and living through some of the darkest days I have ever survived.

Perhaps Pattie Dunn does not know the pain she has caused when she authorised the tactics used to chase down leakers. I doubt she wants those tactics used on herself. Certainly the Attorney General doesn’t want that to happen and it’s good the matter is being investigated to weed out the miscreants.

I never took anything you wrote about this scandal as anything other than an attack on the actions, not the person. I can see, however, why what you wrote nagged at you and I applaud what you have written here. I know you didn’t write this to make this point, but I do think it shows that you are at heart a good person. And isn’t this one of the truly positive points about blogging compared to old media – that it allows the essential humanity of the writer to come through.

As my wife ofte says to me “they nailed the last perfect person to a cross”. We all make what we think of as mistakes, but how we deal with those mistakes tells us a lot about a person.

My husband recently died from skin cancer, and I’m currently fighting breast cancer myself, and I have to say that I personally don’t feel that any “hurt” on Dunn’s part is justified by the comment. But I think it shows class that you apologized anyway.

If you feel you went too far then it is right that you should apolgise however I don’t think you went to far. She was attacking HP just as a cancer attacks a human body. It is unfortunate that she has had cancer also however as you did not know you cannot really be blamed. Personally I think you are apologising for something you have no need to apologise for. She is the guilty party here, not you.

It’s tough being in your position let’s not forget. everything you say and how you say it get’s scrutinized down to the deteail. It’s a tough call to decide to do what you did, and for that I think you should be commended

I have to remember what was told to me by a great sage of old.

There are three kinds of people.
“Great people talk about ideals.
Average people talk about things.
Small people talk about other people.”

Turning the mirror is a good thing. I share this with others in the hope that they remind me of it when I stray below average. ; )

Only one guy was perfect and look what they did to him.

You are absolutly right, the end does not justify the means and she should leave over that action. Keep up the great work. I am very excited by all of the “ideals” you continue to shed light upon.

Be careful sharing this quote with others, they will hold you to the letter when you stray.
One last word. “Mercy” ? Given or received. ; )

Again, keep up the vision. Your blog and channel 9 video work is “Great”.

regards,
Russ
“Knowledge is best served as a shared resource!”. reh 2000

Now she is going to have to appear before the Congressional Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations along with all the pretexting slimeballs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/technology/16hewlett.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Your metaphor was spot on, she is a wretched human, who can’t be trusted. She has rolled out her tentacles to ensnare you into apologizing to her. Why do I care that she survived cancer, millions of people survive cancer and aren’t as vicious and sneaky as her. She gives cancer survivors a bad name, and apologizing to her, well that’s your choice.

Like some others have alluded to — if you DIDN’T know she had cancer, it wouldn’t be an issue. However, it’s an apt metaphor… APT, I tell you! Maybe you could say “festering boil”? But only if she’s never actually HAD a festering boil…

Robert,

You might not have been able to know she was a cancer survisor but as soon as you found out you did this post and apologized. To me that is what matters most – you regcognized the gaff and dealt with it head on.

Good for you Robert, dealing with your mistake, honestly, quickly, and everyone moves forward.

What an example that is for so many.

Gaffe? Where’s the problem? Was she a nasty piece of work whose continued presence was eating a once-great company from inside, slowly killing i? Seems an apt metaphor.
Let’s use the words “infected ingrown hair”, “inflamed ingrown toenail”, “canker”, “pustule”, “enraged boil”, “necrotic wound”, “weeping sore”.
Now I’m sure she’s had some of these ailments….why do we STILL hide behind the C-word?

In other news, that’s not funny – my brother died that way.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33660

Yes. You went too far – you have posted about this matter so much like you never did for any other topic.

Probably this is becouse you was unhappy that board member was sharing information with folks like you and was punished for this. You become scared that somebody will get list of phone-numbers you have called or somebody else has called. This seems to be easy as your phone-number is on the this page.

P.S> Can you update http://scoble.weblogs.com/ website to make it clear you are not MS person anymore ? Migrate all postings from weblogs.com to this one (and make sure to make backup). If you need help on setting up redirect pages – I can help.

I disagree ‘cancer’ is an apt description of what hp has/had. Dont apologise.