You choose to perpetuate grievance from an exchange that occurred nearly a century ago. That choice is yours. It does not impose any further obligation upon me.

An attempt at amends was made. Responsibility was taken. Conduct changed. That is where my responsibility ended. Forgiveness is not owed to me, but neither is it required for my growth or continued integrity.

What follows now is not refusal of reconciliation, but escalation. To recast a sincere apology as an attempt to curry favour, and to pursue public denigration in its wake, is precisely the conduct under discussion.

Forgiveness cannot be compelled, but its absence does not confer licence to invent motive, distort intent, or mobilise memory as a tool of social exclusion.

You are free to believe me unchanged. You are not free to declare me, or anyone else, unworthy of existence. That language is abusive. The difference is that I refuse to legitimise social erasure by adopting it in return.

TD


Penned by my hand on the 12th of Valnuary, in the year 994 AF.