January 5, 2017

I feel the need for more detail regarding the events that took place on Tuesday and the Blog that was posted that day.

As I stated in that post, I am a gay male.  Have been my whole life.  I've been in a relationship with a guy named Jeff for a few years now.  We have met frequently during that time. I travel to him - he has never been to my unit.   And as consenting adults, behind closed doors, we enjoy our time together.  I don't think that is wrong.

I suppose a legitimate question is why haven't I come out before.  It is my nature to be private with my life and I don't flaunt my sexual orientation.  Some in the Circle probably were suspicious but they never asked me about it.  I suppose they were too polite or whatever.  If asked, I would have been truthful.  I am not ashamed of what I am.

The picture!  I brought a camera with me once when Jeff and I got together.  We were fooling around with it and took some pictures including the one that appeared on my Blog.  I have been told that the picture was pornographic.  Yes, that was me laying butt naked  on my stomach.  I personally didn't think much of it and after I developed it on my computer, it wasn't long before it was deleted - from my computer.  I suppose it could be thought of as pornographic but  pornography is in the eye of the beholder and that certainly didn't apply, as I saw it.

I was told that I should have been more careful.  And that certainly is the truth.  What I underestimated was the encroachment into our private lives that happens when we utilize the computer and surf the internet with Google or any of the other tech companies, including Yahoo and Microsoft.  I must have unwittingly given Google Drive the authority to get into my private files including pictures and other data.  Google built a profile for me which featured that picture.

After being told that my profile contained a pornographic picture I was stunned.  I started looking for the picture and was very surprised to see a  profile with all my data contained in it, including a number of pictures that they had stored for me by Google in an album.  And that picture was featured!  They could have selected the picture of the rhubarb  pie that I was proud of making which was also in the album.  But they randomly selected that picture.   Obviously, that picture and all the others have been deleted off Google Drive.   No more Google Drive for me!

I've learned the hard lesson the hard way by being stupid in not understanding the way the tech companies operate these days.   I wasn't as cautious and careful as I should have been.  Lessons learned and now applied.

Now, as I explained in the last posting, the ballots for the Board of Directors have already been printed and were to be sent out Wednesday.  There was no way that I could have gotten my name off of that ballot even if I wanted to.  But I didn't want to take my name off the ballot.  I have made a promise that I would apply to be a Board Member and I wanted to keep that promise. I do not desire to be President.  But there are some things that I wanted to accomplish as a Board Member.   There are things happening in the management of our Circle that should be questioned and discussed and that was my objective.

Whether I become a Board Member is obviously up to the voters.  If they see fit to vote me in, I will accept.  If not, there will be no hard feeling - I can understand and will behave accordingly.  I am not going to campaign for the position - this is the last word that I will say about being a candidate.

Andy Johnson