Earlier this week I posted a racist joke circulated by public health employees in OK. I included

the email addresses of the culprits and was roundly attacked for that.

I had sent the message on to the Director of the city's health department as an example of inappropriate use of government resources used to circulate an inappropriate and hateful message. The general response here, aside from being warned about violating the privacy of the cretins, was that there was little chance that anything would be done.

Well, guess what? I received a response from the Director of Nursing (the employee was an RN) with the city health department. My complaint had been passed to him. The originator (in the city dept) will be receiving "appropriate disciplinary interventions" AND the city is also following up with the state department of health (who employs the originator of the message).

Now, whether anything is ultimately accomplished by this is still to be determined. But at least one despicable character is suffering consequences for their actions.

Personally, I feel that this is the way to deal with situations like this. Actions result in consequences, some of the time. One of the reasons that the members of the administration have been able to get away with lie after misdeed after theft after crime is that they have not been made to suffer any consequences for their actions.

So I acted. I went after the only persons I could - those who wrote and circulated the trash. Political action (marches, mass letter writing, etc.) may have their uses, but there is usually no tangible result from that kind of protest.

In this instance, I called out an individual and they MAY have to account for themselves to their bosses. At the least, they are being made aware that officially, the city and state departments of health will not tolerate racism. Do I think they will learn the error of their ways? No. But they may think twice before contributing more hatred and prejudice to the political and social environment.

I do think that if more people took this direct approach to more issues and instances, some of the negative actions could be curbed. For instance, if the CEO of a sub-prime lender lost their home as a result of forcing thousands of regular Americans out of theirs, things might improve.

But that is just my perspective.

I agree, more people need to do the same thing. Myself included.

I got one from a coworker, even after I asked her not to send me such crap, and I almost did the same thing. I guess I chickened out and didnt want to be labeled a trouble maker. I am not proud of that, but she has since stopped, since I mentioned to another coworker I was thinking of making the complaint.