By stepping into my new position at the Independent a month ago, I have learned a number of things, most of which are productive and will serve me well as I continue to try to improve as an editor and journalist. But there’s one thing I didn’t need to learn, something that I actually learned about 15 years ago, something that hasn’t and never will change — the general public, and please take no offense to this, can be downright nasty. In the past week alone I had a personal F-bomb dropped on my head (again, not a first), and have been called a sexist and a “right-wing SOB.” Welcome to my world. People will attack my character for the rest of my career, I’m sure, and I won’t make a habit of writing/complaining about what people think of me; I just wanted to seize this moment to clear the air on some things. I must preface this by saying my feelings have not been hurt and I’m not about to crawl into a hole because of what a few fine people think of me. Editors can’t do that.