[truefox]

I respectfully submit that this whole thread is wrong-headed. Let's see if I understand what you're saying. I play poker with someone at the local casino and I bump into her/him. You're suggesting I should pretend that I've never laid eyes on him before, lest he suffer some reprecussions of some kind because his companions learn that he's a poker player. Is that it?????

So why might that be?

Hmmm....maybe he's with his wife and he's been telling her he's going to the dentist for bridgework? Then it becomes my responsibility to protect his cover, so that he can continue to lie about where he is and what he's doing--or where their money is really going.

Or maybe he's an addicted gambler, out having coffee with his GA buds. I should be most careful not to undermine his pretense of integrity...I should deprive him of the opportunity to get the help he joined the group for.

Or he's a Jevhova's Witness, standing at the bus stop with other JW's. Should they learn of his secret, double life he will be shunned, ousted from the Church and never spoken to again. I must, of course, not shake up the house of cards in which resides his hypocrisy.

Good souls that you are, you feel it important to engage in duplicity (pretending not to know someone) so that they will not be accountable for what they do IN PUBLIC that is at odds with someone they pretend to be or say they are. I'm sorry. This reeks to high heaven of deceit. You are what you are, you do what you do. Stand up and take responsibilty for it or don't--that's your business. But ask me to support you if you pretend you are one thing but are in fact another? Find another of your ilk, this girl sets the bar higher.