Racially Insensitive Emails Revealed at Government Agency
It was not easy to read an article that appeared in the New York Times on May 10, 2008, which related to the transmittal of emails circulated to and from email accounts of at least twenty secret service supervisors.
Although the agency’s position is that they deplore racially insensitive jokes and express disappointment that they were transmitted, the fact is they appear to have been sent and the disappointment that we all feel at learning such information is indeed troubling.
The ease with which written documents are transmitted through email has resulted in loose and thoughtless material being transmitted that has no place in rational and thoughtful communication. The abuse has reached proportions so vast that there is hardly any litigation in which among the significant exhibits are emails that either or both of the parties foolishly transmitted. If we could point to one specific area that requires greater thought and unfortunately, in some instances, more detailed supervision, it would be with the freedom with which emails are transmitted. There is hardly a case tried in a court where emails do not have a material and significant effect.
If we can offer a suggestion with respect to the destructive manner in which emails are so readily exchanged it would be to think seriously about what is being written before your message turns around to haunt you.
