My post on 7th January about a University of Washington academic moving to a senior social services post has a follow-up. Opponents have stirred up an old controversy about an unserious email she sent a few years ago that people thought may possibly have been a bit racist. Opinion varies (you can tell that from the press report and comments on it).
My comment is that this is of course just a silly media nonsense got up by politicking. But it goes to show that senior people everywhere are going to be watched and assessed by all sorts of people, not just their sorts of people. And modern electronic gadgetry can let us do things too quickly before thinking carefully about it. Of course, we should be generous to social worker Beth Mills, in taking up a high profile job, but even if we are low-profile at the moment, we should all learn that being out of order is likely to come to haunt us. At that point we cease to be low profile and become high profile. Avoid the stress: caution is a good watchword, even if it leads to a boring life.
The full report on the Lexington Herald-Star Leader.
http://www.kentucky.com/2011/01/20/1604247/controversial-e-mail-by-gray-appointee.html#more
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