this artist ... could have saved herself a bit of embarrassment and the taxpayers a bit of money
We all agree, myself included, tsuwm, that the artist bears some responsibility for what happened, but why is everyone so inattentive to the larger share of responsibility here? That is what perplexes me, truly.
In law, there is a concept known as "contributory negligence". It recognizes that in the real world there is often a combination of mistakes or failures which leads to a particular pecuniary loss.
This is not a complex, legalistic notion. It is a common sense notion arising from ordinary, everyday experience.
If a traffic cop leaves his post at a intersection for an unauthorized coffee break during rush hour, and an accident occurs while he is absent, is the cop without blame for the accident?
If he had been doing his job as he was paid to do, there wouldn't have been an accident.
If the Livermore library adminstration had been doing its job in first approving and then overseeing Maria's work, or if they had just carried out one of these customary duties and not both, the spelling mistakes in question would never have occurred.
Their failures cost the taxpayers of Livermore $6,000.
Why are we so eager to make a scapegoat of Maria?
That's the part I just don't get, tsuwm.
Why turn a blind eye to the failures of the establishment?
