Betty,

A reasoned and reasonable response.

Regret my “midmorning irritation.”  I apologize for the “moral
superiority” slur.  Probably my temporary indisposition to sarcasm and
other aspects of my lacking self control.

On the other hand I do thank you for being watchful about the waste of
taxes.  There’s so much of it.  I used to think about government and
rich folks: “What a waste of good money!”  Now that I’m out of the
former I want to join the latter.

S.


Date:    Mon, 21 Feb 2000 09:17:47 EST
From:    Betty Alfred <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: When at Risk

In a message dated 02/21/2000 3:06:04 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<<
 Are you expressing sarcasm, innuendo, lousy research, sour grapes, or
 the art of the abstraction?
  >>
I was being sarcastic.  You're question deserves a good response though
and I
promise it won't be sarcastic.  I can see where you're coming from and I
understand your response to my post.  Do me a favor though, don't hang
me
just yet.

My feelings on the subject are absolutely on behalf of people who are
hurt on
the job, but also for tax payers who have to foot the bill other people
take
unfair advantage of that system.  It happens, and I saw it happen with
alarming regularity.

I also saw people who were legitimately hurt, and were in bad shape
physically who had trouble getting help to pursue their claim.  I can't
discuss specifics on this list, for obvious reasons.  I worked in
occupational safety and health for ten years and there isn't a claim
that
came across my desk that I can discuss in detail here.  I'm sure you
know
that.

I understand what you're saying, but I wasn't talking about people who
are
really hurt on the job, or people who are really hurt and come back to
work
as soon as they can.  Suffice it to say that I helped those people as
much as
I was able, and I can look at myself in the mirror.

It jerks my jaw though, to read this moral superiority accusation.
There's
no justification for it.  I put my money where my mouth is, so that's
not my
pill to swallow.