If Eich said that his views have evolved and that he believes differently now than he did then, I would absolutely support him. If he said, "You know, I used to have a very traditional view of marriage and that led me to support Prop 8. However, over my years at Mozilla, I've seen many committed same-sex relationships and realized that they are as deserving of the word 'married' as any other", if he used this opportunity to embrace his critics and explain where he is at and why he is a good choice to lead, this could have worked out very differently. None of that happened, however.
The Mozilla foundation is ideal-driven, committed to openness, egalitarianism, diversity, inclusion. Whoever leads the foundation needs to personify those ideals if they want to continue to push them forward and retain and expand the support base it has gained. A large number of prominent companies, particularly tech companies, have become public supporters of marriage equality, even outside the open source sector. Eich stepped down because he was out of step with the people he was supposed to be leading. He's a strong technical lead and deeply committed to open source software. But when it came down to people questioning his ability to embrace the ideals of equality, inclusion, egalitarianism and extend them to all people at a broader social level, he was unable to usefully navigate the discussion. He stumbled, stalled, deferred, tried changing the topic...he just did a bad job of leading. And that's why he wasn't a good choice to be CEO of that organization. Cheers, Judah On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 9:35 PM, C. Hatton Humphrey <chumph...@gmail.com>wrote: > > On Sat, Apr 5, 2014 at 11:41 PM, Eric Roberts < > ow...@threeravensconsulting.com> wrote: > > > They didn't support Prop 8...they were against it Sam... > > > Ahh, words do mean things, don't they? You're right that they didn't > support Prop 8, but... > > Obama didn't directly support Prop 8, however when asked during the 2008 > election he responded that he, "personally considered marriage to be > between a man and woman, and supported civil unions that confer comparable > rights rather than gay marriage" (Prop 8 Wiki) > > Biden for DOMA and Hillary said she would have voted for it during her > Senate campaign. > > But hey, positions "evolve" don't they? > > Hillary's did in 2008, when she released a statement that, "I support > repealing the provision of DOMA that may prohibit the federal government > from providing benefits to people in states that recognize same sex > marriage. I strongly support ensuring people in stable, long-term same sex > relationships have full equality of benefits, rights, and > responsibilities," ( > http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0607/Hillary_repudiates_DOMA.html) > > What floors me about this whole thing is the stink that's being made. The > guy donated $1,000 to a campaign that brought in $39 Million, big whoop. I > think this commentary sums up my personal position nicely: > > http://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2014/04/05/backlash-against-brendan-eich-crossed-a-line/ > > Though there's a good section in another Forbes editorial: > > http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/04/04/mozillas-brendan-eich-persecutor-or-persecuted/ > > On the other side, the sharpest critic of Eich's ouster is Andrew Sullivan, > the popular writer of the Daily Dish blog who is openly gay and an early > supporter of gay marriage. "The whole episode disgusts me - as it should > disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society," he wrote. "If > this is the gay rights movement today - hounding our opponents with a > fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else - then count me > out." On Twitter, many agreed with Sullivan. "The mob got their man," wrote > Matt Galligan, CEO of news startup Circa. "While I disagree with his > beliefs @BrendanEich gave us JavaScript and helped build Mozilla & > Netscape. Just $1,000 to Prop 8 now his legacy." > > Until Later! > C. Hatton Humphrey > http://www.eastcoastconservative.com > > Every cloud does have a silver lining. Sometimes you just have to do some > smelting to find it. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:369786 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
