10.Dec.2008 Sigh Sigh
Before you read whatever irrelevant rant I’m going to post here, I suggest you read Smoke’s transcript of the Tracy Borres post, Smoke’s reply, and her take on Tracy’s reply. More required reading comes from ReynaElena. Which means you don’t have to read this. Also, read Reezen TOT’s side of the story. – Marocharim
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Before we “lynch” Tracy Borres, let’s take a step back and see what her entry is about. I read it to be a personal opinion of a personal experience. Ethnocentric? Yes. Offensive? Definitely.
Should she have blogged about it? Absolutely not.
I’m not the most merciful guy on the face of the earth, but Tracy has already been critiqued on the basis of her unpopular opinion. If you asked me, big deal: we all hold unpopular opinions. When you’re reading this blog, you’re reading many unpopular opinions from an anarchist who believes euthanasia and abortion should be legalized. The only difference is that I’m not telling you to pull the plug on a sick relative, and I’m not talking to you about the uses of certain herbs and coat hangers, so to speak.
The problem here is how Tracy Borres wrote about something she knew was offensive, wrote it in a way she knew was tactless, and expected too little of a consequence for it. And the least she could manage was… “Sigh sigh.”
The question this time is whether or not Tracy deserves the flak coming to her. Well no, and it’s not because I have a soft spot for colegiala types with ditzy humor who have some measure of “hitsura…” well, yeah, I do. Anyway…
In blogging spheres, there’s such a thing as “the unbloggable.” There are things you simply can’t blog about. For example, I can’t blog about sensitive concerns and information about my job. I can’t blog about issues that take place within my family. Granted that I’ll offend people from time to time, but responsible blogging – heck, responsible writing, at that – is based on the precept that you’re not going to intentionally offend, harm, or malign anybody just because you’re making a personal opinion public.
I hate repeating myself, but again:
Honeste vivere, alterum no laedare, suum cique triburere (Live honestly, do no harm, give one’s due).
You can write about all the offensive things you like, but you think twice, thrice, four times, and even a full day before you give yourself the license to write about it. While you’re “more free” with blogging than by writing on some locked journal, what you write on the Internet can – and will – be used against you, whether it’s a real court, or the court of public opinion. People’s lives and reputations get built – and yes, ruined – by the Internet. The moment you commit something to the relative permanence of a blog, you’re pretty much accountable for it.
For me, it’s not about the ka-artehan or ka-conyohan of Tracy Borres, but the kakapalan ng mukha niya to post her offensive, objectionable views without a semblance of a rational, humane, passabe defense of her argument. Somewhere in her objectionable opinion, there were many, many good defenses made in her behalf. Yet had Tracy kept her opinions to herself, had Tracy’s friends had the prudence to not circulate the e-mail or Facebook message or what, then we wouldn’t have these inane, asinine, feces-on-the-hair-of-a-stray-cat “blog controversies” that don’t do anything to uplift the credibility of blogging.
Furthermore, it’s not just about Tracy Borres, but every single blogger out there who thinks that he or she can get away with a review that looks down upon the generosity of a host, or maligns the good name and reputation of another person. We all feel that our blogs are our own personal places, when in fact a lot about a blog is public. Rather than exercise prudence and respect, many of us overstep the bounds of what is honorable, what is respectable, and what is just. The continued neglect for these important issues – these simple precepts – is what makes irrelevant blog controversies that run down the credibility of blogging.
Nobody, not the least of which a guy who believes that chocolate cake is an abomination that should be flushed down the toilet, is begrudging anyone to express something objectionable. Yet even the most objectionable opinions like Nazism, the Holocaust, and Maafa last because they were well-thought-out, before being released into the realm of public discourse. In blogs, it’s simply not the case; we wait for things to “boil over,” and wait until all of this is forgotten.
Sigh sigh. XOXO.
Integra 
Im not perfect either 
