I'm sure most of you have heard about what Harlan Ellison did to Connie Willis at the Hugo Awards last week. I'll point you to Gwenda who followed it quite well as the story broke and then over to David Moles who has started his own tempest as he took postings from a private Sci Fi community board and publicly placed them on his blog. Folks are freaking out over it and much discussion has ensued. (Do read the comments).

Harlan has given a lame ass apology and disturbingly many folks have found reasons to explain away his actions or dismiss them as nothing much. I seem to be in a lonely camp by myself - many folks find the conduct of Ellison to be appalling but that's not my point. (Although believe me, I find his actions appalling as well.) I don't understand why World Con or the WSFS (the organization that votes on the awards) have failed to come out with public statements condeming this. There has been no official apology from them to Ms Willis that I've heard about - no apology to the folks who saw it, no apology to everyone for having it occur at their professional awards gathering. I'm struck by the oddness of this - it's like well, it happened at a Con and stuff happens at Cons and let's all just talk on and on about it but not do anything.

Please all you Sci Fi fans - don't expect anything official to happen.

Frankly, I don't care why Ellison did it and other than hoping he privately apologizes to Willis (who might not want to hear it), I don't care what he does from now on. But you can not call yourself a professional organization and then have this happen and not act on it. This was not a roast - it was not a meeting of comedians and beyond that, it was not a gathering where it was even possibly suggested that a man might grab a woman's breast in jest. So it should not have happened. And when it does, then you need to take steps to set things right.

Folks were dressed up and hoping to win a great award for their work - it was a big big night for them. Why dirty it with this kind of joke and then, after it happens, why not apologize for it? Why not strive to bring some level of maturity and responbility and professionalism back to the evening?

I don't care what every sci fi writer on the planet thinks about this. What I want to know is how can you possibly expect us, the fans, to care about who wins these awards if they are given out in an atmosphere that I would not allow at my neighborhood block party?

IWhat I have to wonder, is are you a bunch of adults, or what?