Handling mean emails

I have learned, long time ago, that emails are essentially meant to convey factual information and are not a conduit for distilling opinions or materials that could be offensive to others. This is why I do my best to think twice before I send a joke that could be poorly received by some. I said “do my best” because at times, even my best was far from satisfactory!

At any rate, disparaging or vulgar jokes should never be sent by email and the same applies to venom-laden political messages. Talking of these, one of my neighbor just sent me one that was disparaging president Obama, while she clearly knew that I supported Obama over Romney in the last election. I saw her email, read it twice and let it rest for 24 hours.

I had one of three choices: Ignoring and deleting the message, which I do most of the time, blocking her future emails, something I will do when there is blatant, repeated abuse or responding if it can be a "teachable moment;" because it precisely was such an opportunity, I chose to respond.

I composed a response that I thought was making a good positive point while teaching her a valuable lesson. This lady, who is about my age and comes from a European country, is a permanent resident, but not a U.S. Citizen. My answer went like this: “Good for you! If you feel so strongly about these issues and wish you can make a tangible impact on the way things go in this country, you absolutely must become a U.S. Citizen...”

Like her, I also know that her native country is among some that would revoke her birth citizenship if she became American, so that's probably why she won't spit “inside the tent.” At any rate I turned her "nastygram"into a courteous suggestion she can ponder about.