Much has been said, and is still continuing to be said about Mrs. Clinton's use or misuse of e-mail transmissions while serving as Secretary of State.  So in an effort to be entirely fair about this controversy I made some comparisons not just about my own usage of a relatively new method of communication as well as that of many current users.    

When I say “relatively new” I speak of the use of a computer keyboard to author communications in the age of high technology as compared to either a handwritten document or dictating same to a stenographer to be transcribed into a typewritten message.  Let me point out that internet e-mail only became widely used within the last 30 years or so, approximately the mid 1980's.  Even then, many suburban and rural areas did not go on-line until the turn of the 21st century. 

Prior to that time, although it may seem antiquated and obsolete, the main means of communication was either by the US Postal Service, the telephone, fax or teletype/telegraph.  Computers communicated only by dedicated line to a headquarters office, or were entirely “in house”.  Many business and governmental organization personnel who held positions at that time were born within the first half of the 20th Century, and went through the upheaval of this transitional period, Mrs. Clinton (and myself) included.  For good measure let us add in Donald Trump. 

To be quite frank, I have never been able to get over my distrust of this modern method of communication.  Nor have I been able to adjust my thinking to “computer speak” such as capitalizing the first letters of each word to form an unfamiliar term:   POTUS?  SCOTUS?  JPEG? LOL?......

I don't know whether I am on Wi-fi or land line, whether I have an independent e-mail server or my words are being transmitted by carrier pigeon or bumble bee. 

A fourth or fifth grader in elementary school quite probably knows a great deal more than I do about computer usage and its mysterious ways.  This I deplore, as the age of beautiful handwritten or typewritten, grammatically correct communication is rapidly becoming as obsolete as the daily newspaper and reading a good book on a rainy afternoon.  Let us hope that a renaissance of reading and writing will eventually return to take its rightful place in society.

This is not to say or even suggest that Mrs. Clinton is as unsophisticated an e-mail transmitter as I am.  But it is quite possible she is as distrustful of the prescribed method of communication.  I would find it difficult to force myself to use a system with which I am unfamiliar, especially in the face of recent episodes by “whistle blowers” and government employees entrusted and “cleared”.  And it has become quite obvious she did not consider a personal server as vulnerable to hacking, spying and malware intrusion as that of a Government bureau.   Quite possibly it was not.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has cleared her unequivocally of wrongdoing, merely saying it was not recommended or words to that effect.

So let us put to bed this ridiculous notion that Mrs. Clinton deliberately broke all the rules by engaging in unorthodox methods of communication during her tenure as Secretary of State.  She used the simplest and easiest route available to her whether in her workplace, enroute to another assignment or possibly during hours of rest at home.  No harm came to the United States, its Government, the security of its institutions, or its citizens.  If I were in her position it is entirely possible I would have done the same. 

Lucille Apcar
Mariposa, CA.