OK, Mrs Davenport, let's take this from a logical perspective. I will make the assumption you are at least the same age I am, which is 46 and I will also assume you were born in the United States, just like I am. Seeing that you live in Orange County and you are a member of the tea party and a member of the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party, at least this is the information presented in the media, you are aware of the current political issues of the day.

Why in heaven's name did you think sending out this picture with the caption “Now You Know Why – No Birth Certificate!” would be kept within in your circle of friends or wouldn't cause a firestorm in the press? Just before the election of Obama in 08, with another member of the Republican Party in Orange County, an email was sent with a picture of a watermelon patch on the front lawn. Another 'funny' email was sent earlier with Obama's face on a welfare bill, depicting the fun foods welfare people eat, like watermelon, fried chicken and the like. Those were on the news and widely reported. Even someone like myself, not politically connected, knew about those stories and reported them.

People who were accused of sending them at the time used the same excuse you used, with the same degree of skepticism. Stop throwing out the old claim of ignorance about how you didn't know it was going to offend. If you lived in this country as long as I have you know, even on a passing level, that equating black people to monkeys is offensive. A few days ago I wrote an article about Rush Limbaugh calling the base of Obama supporters savages. It wasn't done in jest or ignorance. It was done to hurt, it was done to demean.

For the past few hours I have seen how some want to claim this is no big deal, just bringing racism into a discussion that doesn't deserve it. You even used the old standby “Everyone who knows me knows I'm not a racist.” I'm sure in your mind you're not a racist and you might not care what we think about you, but again I would have to question your judgment considering your position. I'm sure you don't live in a bubble so those other incidents certainly were in the back of your mind when you got the picture, when you clicked on the button to send it out to a few friends. You may not be a racist, and I don't have proof you are a racist, but you are willing to spread a racist image, and no matter if you think what you did was wrong, I know you have the intelligence enough to understand the consequences of your action.

Whether you like it or not, the age of anonymity is over. As previous examples proved, you can't just send out something and consider it to be contained or not easily traced to you. Just like those other instances, it took less than a week for the story to go from a local blip to a national debate. I'm posting this issue of Chaotic Fringe on a Sunday, I found the information late last night on the LA Times website, by Monday this will be the talk of the cable news shows.

Was it worth it Mrs Davenport? A second to hit a button has caused you a lot of grief, and will continue to give you grief for some time to come, just because you, living in this country for so long and being in the position you are in, couldn't understand how insulting it might be to infer a black person was an ape, less than human.