Dear woman, I'm appreciating you more and more with every post. I only regret that I didn't see this soon enough to give you a giant upvote for it and I certainly would have resteemed.

So many important issues raised here and see and even feel the fear of being chastised for speaking up or out. Maybe I'll do it wrong, get it wrong, not express my ideas clearly enough so they'll be completely misunderstood or even if they are expressed well they'll be misunderstood or attacked anyway.

What I believe in my heart of hearts is that we all need room, latitude, forgiveness, support and honest dialogue so that we can grow. We all have internalized sexism, racism, classism that we're all trying to work through and shutting up about our process isn't always the best scenario. Yes not everything needs to be shared with everyone, but when we do choose to share, disagreement is fine, attacks not fine. Yes we all have passion and hurt and all kinds of feelings that arise when we disagree, but process one's feelings and THEN respond with care!

I like to think of Sarah Silverman's compassionate response to her troll and the incredible healing and connection that resulted. And I desperately want all of us to be able to speak so we can grow which means that we will make mistakes and for there to be some benefit of the doubt, some seeing the spirit of who someone is rather than attacking one action.

In any case, thank you for your thoughtful post!