Wow. So many thoughts. First, I want to thankt he Mods for letting us have this special place to post our venting and frustration.
I have to admit I was tricked up until the point of the Deity names being spoken post. But I didn't want to be a jerk and say anything I might regret later. But now it's open season. Part of me thinks what he did was hilarious because I love chaos and wrongness. But since chaos is what it is, I also feel very very betrayed. I am a volunteer firefighter, I've seen some nasty things. I've been through fire school and I am currently in EMT school, so the whole story intrigued me and I felt very drawn to it. It was the first set of posts I checked every time I got on the computer. When I read the very first post my heart sank because I know how people feel emotionally when things happen to loved ones.
I think what he did was completely wrong and I am glad he is banned. I know if he ever makes another account and it comes out it's him, people will treat him like crap and it will only get us in trouble. Quite frankly, and maybe it's part of just who I am and part of the things I've seen in the fire service, I really don't care if he has some mental issues and did this because he needs help. He went about it the wrong way and he did it for far too long to justify it.
However, even though it emotionally hurt many of us, myself included, I am proud of the community to have poured out their emotions like they did. It shows true character, especially when some of us were VERY suspicious about the whole thing (the deities thing especially).
The bottom line is (in my opinion) if he would have come clean after the first post it would be one thing, but to continually and purposefully attack our emotions is something completely different. He brought up too many bad emotions in many people. Not cool and unforgivable for me. Some people forgive very easy, but if you are like me and have been screwed over time and again in life by people you continually spend emotions on and forgive, forgiving doesn't come easy.
This has been very long winded, and I apologize for that. But I want to thank thank the Mods again for letting us speak about this so freely. And I want to end saying that I am glad Rev is not in a coma. Hopefully he gets the mental help he needs to get better. But if he doesn't, I don't really care as long as it doesn't affect our community any more.