Well, understand-- I'm really not out to cause drama. If I was confidence silence would have led the community to the truth, I'd greatly prefer that. ****** Alec, suppose you had a neighbor who worked for the Post Office and one day she drove a Mercedes home and stepped out of it wearing diamond earrings. There's no plate on the car. You might wonder whether she had broken the law. You might even write down the VIN number on her car and ask the police department whether this were a stolen vehicle. It isn't.
Word gets back to her from her cousin in the police department and she feels hurt and angry. Other neighbors tell you to leave her alone. Yet you still demand to know about the diamond earrings. Are they cubic zirconia or are they real? Has she been cheating on her taxes? You want her tax records for the public good.
Actually her grandmother died last week. She inherited them. Then the license plate fell off the car. And really, that full story is none of your business. And by pressing so hard when trust was due, you damaged your own reputation and added to her grief.
-Durova