Accountability and responsibility walk hand in hand. Freedom as we once had in America cannot blossom and grow without these two important regulators.

  

I strongly believe this.  I also strongly believe what Sam Walton once told me as we were driving through rural Arkansas in the 80's. "A mans character is not defined by whether that man makes a mistake, it is defined by how that man corrects and atones for that mistake".  I've never forgotten those words.

 

Oddly, in our community, we have a fascination with the mistakes of others and never focus on the corrections or atonement.  This leaves us all blind to the true character of our neighbors.  I believe it is this ignorance of each other that fuels the new favorite past-time of Telluride residents - defamation of character.

 

In days gone by it was simple gossip between Aunt Bee and Clara over the back fence but in today's world, with all our instant communication, the gossip becomes libel and slander and destroys lives, reputations and businesses.  The local newspapers are now the back fence and are under conflicting laws regarding libel, freedom of speech, journalistic privilege and cyber-stalking. I think both local papers are evolving to better handle this, yet to some (like my family) the damage has been done.

 

I've decided to bring light to my failures and atonement in this blog for a couple of reasons.