Please accept my apology…

I have taken my own “24-hour cooling-off” period, or close enough to 24-hours.   I offer my unconditional, unambiguous apology to HW/PC members for allowing myself to get inappropriately offensive in my online responses yesterday.   I allowed the personal attacks to interfere with my own thought process and cloud my personal judgment.   I offer no excuses.   No justifications.   No context.   No limitations.   No conditions.   I was wrong.   And I apologize.   PeterDisAbelard, whom I have emailed a separate apology to yesterday, has agreed to my request from today to simply “lock” this thread after I post it at noon Central in order to prevent things from dragging on.   Let’s just move on.   Please don’t start another thread to talk about this locked thread.   However, if you don’t like what I have to say in general here at HW/PC, then please, please, please just use the “Ignore” button… I am ; that’s what it’s there for.   You won’t offend me if you do (I’ll never know that you have me on “Ignore”).   I have offered an apology twice before at HW/PC.   Once HERE to Purgatory in 2011, and again HERE for becoming offensive.   In addition, I’ve offered to make apologies for possible misstatements in the past ( HERE and HERE ).   That’s too many times; I want to do better .   I felt bad for the direction the discussion turned, and in my 24-hour “cool-off” I realized that I wanted to apologize for my role in it.   My 11 th grade English teacher at Cary High School (town where PeterDisAbelard lives now) would be disappointed in me; she taught me to try to live by the phrase, “Rise above it.”   I can still hear her voice and visualize her gestures (she still teaches there).   I have reminded myself of that phrase many times since high school, and have shared the phrase with others including my own 2 kids.   I will re-commit to the most important lesson I learned from Ms. Hines.