Dear Editor,
Some of my little friends say they don’t believe in DailyKos. People write things that they and I don’t agree with there - and that’s just not right! We say there shouldn’t even be a Daily Kos.
- signed, Bilginia
Dear Bilginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by a myopic self-centered ideology that temporarily has infected our age, our era, our culture, our world. It is a simple-minded black/or/white narrow vision that they and you pass back and forth and regurgitate - a raging influenzic inbred affliction of apparently stunted growth in mind and spirit, a veritable don’t-think tank of 1950’s limitations.
Yes, Bilgina, there is a DailyKos. Still. It exists and it will as long as freedom of thought and speech exist.
It exists online yes, and in coffee shops and taverns - at bookstores and kitchen tables. It exists at Huffingtons and Open Lefts and Organic American. (New site plug). It exists sometimes too at redstate and maybe even sometimes at your site. It is freedom of expression.
Oh yes, occasionally, it’s messy – sometimes an ugly statement is made. And there are people – individuals – who will cross generally accepted lines of decency - on a soapbox in the Boston Common for instance, or even that will expose covert agents for political purposes in major dailies, or make un-called for personal remarks at web sites. But any serious and honest – honest – appraisal of Daily Kos or Huffington Post or Open Left would find those kinds of transgressions to be rare enough.
Not believe in DailyKos! Why, you might just as well not believe that other people have opinions that count, or that other people have information you don’t have. You might as well not believe you could have anything to learn, from anybody. You might as well not believe you could possibly be wrong, uninformed, misinformed. You might as well think it best that you talk over people, yell even, deliberately misinform even, and distort and deceive - anything to get as many people to think your way as you can, at any cost.
DailyKos is not a hate site, by any reasonable measure. What it is is a reflection of what 70% of Americans continue to say poll after poll after poll. It is a reflection of where America is – the majority. It is the left yes, and the center. It is even fiscal conservatives sometimes – which you will see if you actually read the posts - and moderates and independents. If it is ‘a’ voice, it is everyone except the extreme right, participating and contributing.
Not believe in DailyKos! In one form or another it will hopefully live eternally. It is a manifestation of real freedoms, fought for by great Americans for hundreds of years. It is the latest Boston Common, the newest ‘letters-to-the-editors’ page. It is freedom of speech itself – occasionally battered and bruised but still and always, a heartbeat of hope for a better future.
(My apologies to the memory of the wonderful Francis P. Church and his 110 year old editorial. And I know there are a lot of people writing in connection with this ‘controversy’ already, but I think it is important to stand up for free speech every time it seems necessary, in every way possible. And yes, a plug : daily environment/political open-source journalism at http://www.organicamerican.com )