Many of you know that I have my own blog. What follows does NOT appear on my blog and is exclusively written for the Daily Kos community.
I never know who might be reading these Diaries, so let me just take a moment to introduce myself. In November of 2003 I was employed by a law enforcement agency and I was tasked with preparing my jurisdiction for Homeland Security. Part of this preparation meant that I had a very high-speed connection to the Internet.
While meandering around cyberspace during slow times, I somehow managed to stumble across Daily Kos. I didn't post much then, but followed the political discussion avidly as I had never seen such a troll-free, healthy debate anywhere else. Eventually, DKos moved to Scoop and it was not much longer that the Diary feature was turned on.
As hard as it is to believe now, originally I was too timid to write a Diary. Writing a Diary was sort of like grabbing a microphone at an Open Night at a comedy club. The "voice" to reach many people was out there, but did I have anything to say that all of the rest of DKos wanted to read?
Eventually of course I did write a Diary. I started by covering the coup d'etat in the Republic of Georgia, which has been a country that fascinated me since I saw the movie Les mille et une recettes du cuisinier amoureux (English subtitles). If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
I realized that I was evolving into a voice that spoke for all of the lesser-known, forgotten and misunderstood foreign conflicts and current events happening around the world. There are hundreds of articles written on a daily basis about Iraq, but who is monitoring the civil war in Yemen?
My Diaries at Daily Kos seemed to be fairly well received, but they generated little discussion and for a long time I was under the misimpression that nobody like to read them. Part of the problem leading to that misconception was the fact that the Diaries whiz by so rapidly. I also realized that what I wanted to say was growing in volume and it needed a permanent place on the internet to focus on those issues.
Those circumstances combined to move me to find a host on the internet, to start my very own blog. Although I am an American citizen (and have been one all my life), I chose a host in Romania because I am very close to that nation. Indeed, in just five weeks, I will be moving there.
Still though, a blog is sort of a "vanity press". Anyone can open one, write down their thoughts, feelings and link to articles on the internet about any topic under the sun. I have my own permanent "microphone" on the stage. The question becomes, "who is listening?". As a child, I remember visiting Philadelphia and the Liberty Bell. Across from the Liberty Bell is a small platform that anyone who wishes to discuss any subject can stand upon and address his or her fellow citizens as they pass by. My blog, in essence, became my own personal soap box.
Just a few weeks ago, my blog crossed from a vanity press for my own ideas to a valuable source of comfort and information to one particular woman. Her name is Deborah Bennett. Her son Brent had been arrested in Kabul, Afghanistan as part of a team of "freelance vigilantes" operating a prison where several Afghanis were found hanging by their feet. The ringleader of the "vigilantes" was Jonathan K. "Jack" Idema, a well-known personality about whom much has been discussed.
Ms. Bennett, unknowing to me, had turned to my blog for information about her son when nothing was forthcoming from the American government. The local paper in her hometown interviewed her on August 4 when she revealed that she had been reading what I had discovered in my investigation concerning her son and Idema and the others involved in this tale. For me, it was an interesting story. For her, it was her own flesh and blood sitting behind bars in a land far, far away.
For me, I guess that is when I realized by blog had crossed over from being an amusing "lark" or hobby for my time. I eventually quit my full-time job to write full-time, a move that was met with ridicule by some. Many good people wrote to me, advising the foolhardiness of this move. It certainly was not a financially rewarding move, but I knew that going in and prepared myself to live off savings while I gave this full-time journalism/blogging effort "a go".
Unlike the commercial media, I have no advertisers to please. I can write on whatever subject I like and take whatever editorial slant or tone I desire. But the most important factor differing my work from that of commercial journalists is that I can maintain complete anonymity. It was not long after I began investigating the Idema case that readers began sending me valuable information, documents and stories about Idema and the others. If you have visited my site, you will see the fruit of those labors.
By writing for the "purity" of the story, not toeing any editorial line and not pursuing any demographics in my "audience", reader interest in my blog snowballed. When one reader sent me a copy of Idema's visa to enter Afghanistan, another would be inspired to send me background information on Idema's wife, which led to someone who knew her telling me about a third person, etc. And unbeknownst to me, all of that information somehow percolated down to Deborah Bennett, a woman whose interest in my reporting was very personal.
Knowing that I provided even the slightest modicum of comfort and relief to this woman has made all of the difference. I realize now that there is a place for blogging, not necessarily as a substitute for commercial journalism but as a fifth department able to stand on its own.
Our peerless host of this website himself, MarKos, recently wrote a Diary about how DKos came into existence. I wonder what he felt when he realized his website crossed over from being a kind of "chat room" about politics to one that had meaningful, measurable impact on the political world. That politicians came to Kos, that fundraising via the internet (and his site) made a huge difference in elections. That the leadership of the parties turned to Kos for innovation and leadership.
My blog is not about domestic American politics. But I feel that I crossed that line from being a vanity press about what's on my mind to actually providing valuable, real information that impacted people's lives. And for that, I have to thank Ms. Bennett, who has inspired me forevermore to not ever take blogging for granted, to not dismiss it as a vast circle of people with microphones talking just to hear themselves talk.
I hope that my story as well as Kos' story inspire you to keep writing and maintaining your own blogs. You never know who might read what you have to say!
And last but not least, I want to thank all of you for having been my first readers, for being the first people to listen to me at the microphone and clap when I stepped down and tell me "keep it up!". I literally could never have done it without you and without Kos for allowing me the graciousness of posting Diaries on his website.
Peace
-Soj