[WikiEN-l] Missed Opportunities to have avoided the Durova Case

[Durova]

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