Two recent revelations put my long time comment policy into jeopardy. The first is I’m just now realizing that people may link into a post that does not display the main page and, consequently, never see what the comment policy is when they make their comment. Yes, yes, I’m a slow learner. I’ve tried a fix but that has not worked.
The second revelation is that my goal of a web site without anonymity is already realized in cyberspace with vehicles such as facebook. Yes, once again, I know, I’m a slow learner. I’m going to have to seriously rethink my comment policy at this point; meanwhile, the Illuminati guy is smiling somewhere.
Perhaps I’ll allow anonymous comments, but I’ll provide less fodder for comment. The reason for this is I get sidetracked from my goals when I get comments with misinformation. I have almost a pathological dislike for misinformation, in case you had not notice, and I feel compelled to think about them and reply. Such is the case with a comment I received from my Hartford Tea Party post. I’ll resort to my old trick of cutting and pasting the comment here, rather than officially approving it, though this may be the last time for the “old” policy.
As a fellow Nutmegger – the flaw in your argument is that those who chose to protest Obama policies in Torrington are somehow not “part” of the community and therefore have a somewhat less than a legitimate interest to their points of view in public? Our founding fathers used alll street corners to protest what they felt was illegitimate exercise of control from a central government – part of a “community experience” is to allow those who would reign in those central powers an opportunity to organize and protest that illegitimate grasp for increasing central power. No central power can assess a “communities” local needs and should stay out of our examining rooms when we talk to our doctors and care givers
The person commenting shares my dislike for paternal government and appears to share my support of communities as the alternative. Perhaps for that reason I should just leave the comment well enough alone. Yet there are two points in need of clearing up; one I will address here and the other in the next entry.
My position in regards to legitimate interests in their points of view is this: if you live in a community you have a legitimate interest to both protest and counterprotest for your point of view in that community. Had the supporters for Obama in the Torrington shouting match been shipped in from another town I would have had a big problem with that. Had the Tea Party protesters all came from Torrington I would have had no problem with their protest. My understanding, due to the news reports I read, was that the organized Tea Party side was the one that had folks not from Torrington gather in Torrington to advocate their particular point of view. If that is factually incorrect then my position changes accordingly.
Next, it’s time to move on to a history lesson.
Tags: Interest Groups, Middle Class Culture, Middle Class Politics
