Rude to leave during memorial part of ceremony?

[FoxPaws]

Personally, it is none of their business why this person left. If they quietly left, then it was not rude. Who knows what was on this persons schedule.

This. For all anyone knows, the person may have been intending to leave at that time all along - maybe their sitter could only stay until a certain hour or they had an important appointment in the morning - and when the moment of departure arrived, it just so happened to be during the memorial.

It's depressing how willingly people look for offense instead giving the benefit of the doubt.

[cicero]

I think blacklisting is a bizarre over reaction.

so do i

I can actually understand why people were upset (up to a degree) because I always thought that "getting up and leaving" during a speech/ceremony *is* some sort of *declaration*. of course, since we don't know why this person left (was it in protest or was it something else) and since we do allow people to express their feelings (and if this person did leave in protest, she obviously did it quietly), i think the blacklisting comments went a bit too far.

[Audrey Quest]

The person who is rude here is the one who posted this on FB.
 
Why post something like except to cause trouble?
 
Whoever is posting it is drawing much more attention to it than the person who actually did the walking out.
 
So long as one leaves with as little fanfare as humanly possible, one may leave.  One may not be let back in to prevent further disturbance to others, but leaving itself is not prohibited.
 
I don't think its worth going into what reasons are valid or not for leaving.  Adults don't need to have a reason let alone defend their need to leave.  It's no one else's business and not polite to conjecture.

[yokozbornak]

The only rude ones here are the angry mob with pitchforks.  Jeesh!

This!  Holy overreaction, Batman!

[WillyNilly]

The person who is rude here is the one who posted this on FB.
 
Why post something like except to cause trouble?
 
Whoever is posting it is drawing much more attention to it than the person who actually did the walking out.

This.

If anyone is to be blacklisted it should be the FB poster. 

Adults should have the freedom to come and go to voluntary events as they please.  The person who left was apparently discreet enough their exit was not noticed by the masses.  And for all anyone know they didn't even leave - they might have left their seat (perhaps they were about to have a huge coughing fit, got an emergency text, had to pee, etc) and then decided returning to their seat would be disruptive and just slipped into an empty seat in back for the duration of the event.

[Everlee]

Wow!  I had to click on this post just to make sure this wasn't about me.  My cousin's visitation and funeral were last week with the funeral starting immediately after the visitation.  My youngest is in half day pre-k and I had to leave just a few minutes before the funeral started to get back to her sitters and get her to school on time.  I got a lot of dirty looks when I got up to leave, but it was really none of their business what my reasons were. 
I think that unless the person announces their reasons for leaving, you (in general, not aimed at the OP) should really just not worry about it.  Stuff happens.

[Secret]

Wow, I agree 100% with everyone else. OP, keep us posted about the consequences.  I do think at least one person should raise doubt with the angry mob.  Just say,  "Perhpas this someone lost someone close to them recently and needed to get away so they didn't go bawling in public, perhaps this person ate something that didn't sit well".

Since the person did it quietly and discretly, don't go up and ask this woman, leave it be.

[It's good to be Queen]

Who is the FB poster to decide if the person needed to leave the theatre?  I can be in extreme gastric distress and casually get up and leave my seat and walk to the restroom because I don't want the entire world to know (true I may have broken into a run in the empty lobby!).  I am not 5 years old, I do not do the pee-pee dance when I am desparate to use the facilities!

[FoxPaws]

Who is the FB poster to decide if the person needed to leave the theatre.  I can be in extreme gastric distress and casually get up and leave my seat and walk to the restroom because I don't want the entire world to know (true I may have broken into a run in the empty lobby!).  I am not 5 years old, I do not to the pee-pee dance when I am desperate to use the facilities!

An excellent point. If someone must leave mid-performance/service/ceremony, the way to do it is "nonchalantly" - aka not making a big ruckus and calling attention to themselves or disrupting the proceedings.

[kingsrings]

Wow, I agree 100% with everyone else. OP, keep us posted about the consequences.  I do think at least one person should raise doubt with the angry mob.  Just say,  "Perhpas this someone lost someone close to them recently and needed to get away so they didn't go bawling in public, perhaps this person ate something that didn't sit well".

Since the person did it quietly and discretly, don't go up and ask this woman, leave it be.

Oh, I don't think there will be any actual consequences. I posted yesterday giving my opinion (the opinions here), but nobody has responded. I think it just blew over. My friend refused to actually name the person, so there couldn't be any pitchforking done anyway, heh.

[Lisbeth]

Yeah, it's an overreaction to blacklist the woman since she didn't make an issue of why she was leaving.

[LEMon]

I too have health issues.  When I need to leave, I need to leave.  I try to be discrete, and I try to wait for a break.  But I do need to leave.

And my issues are all the more likely to be triggered if I am emotional.  If I had been unprepared for the amount of sharing, or if I had been unaware of the death, I too would have had to leave in the middle.

Plus since this doesn't sound like an announced part of the program, I would have had no way to know when this was likely to be done.

I'm glad to hear the furor is beginning to lose its force.

[barefoot_girl]

Am I the only one who doesn't think its weird that a group of thesps felt the need to create a drama???! I mean, if they are involved with local theatre, they are indeed, drama queens!!