What a week... We had this on Christmas Eve and now today we were "blessed" with this. I suppose this is normal, a lot of emotions run high at this time of year, I know mine do.
Having said that I find myself wondering what the Rainbow diarist and the BWD diarist hoped to achieve here. Yes, I know the Rainbow diarist is a racist, propagandist of the worst sort, interested in "playing" this community. And I also recognize that the followers of BWD have very strong feelings about her leaving here and how and why that came about.
It did come about as did Rainbowgirl's banning. Why? Follow me below the fold.
It's because of the extremes. This community respects good writing but not extremism. We celebrate the author who can make his/her case, eloquently without either "playing the community" or being a cheerleader for our President. We don't do that.
RainbowGirl taught us that we are vulnerable towards being protective of the messenger while lamenting the message. And many here protected her.
But, at the end of the day, that isn't who this community is. We question, we debate, we argue. We discern. And that feature saves us, as a community, every single time. We discern. Some figured it out from the beginning. Others needed a bit of time. Ultimately Bob Johnson took care of it for us, did some investigative work, and nailed that author. And, wow, she was a wonderful writer. And she took our shorts down. She wrote so well many went for it, and who could fault them for it?
As for BWD, her diaries celebrating every photo-op of President Obama with the attendant hero-worship wore thin. In our hours of discontent, our hours of real human need, this seeming worship, he can do no wrong, turned many off and aside. Honestly, I think her hero-worship documentation turned a lot of us off to the point we rebelled and said, "no more".
We are a community in the truest and finest sense. We harbor no real ill will toward anyone, except Thugs, and simply want balanced offerings in the diaries presented here. No hero worship and no propaganda. As Sergeant Joe Friday used to say, "just the facts ma'am".
Just the facts. Keep it true. No hero worship and no propaganda.
Ya know, as a former Edwards supporter here (gahhd, I know) my best arguments were with others who disagreed but with solid arguments. I can never look back on those days, with those folks, without lingering respect. The Rainbowgirls and the BWD followers, while I say again I enjoyed many of those photo diaries, need to get that concept. No leader is perfect and most are not complete rotters. They're human.
So, please, enough already with the Meta stuff over this. There is so much else we need to deal with. Is it really that important that we beat each other up over those who have chosen to leave, for whatever reason, or have been banned, with good reason?
We have a lot of work to do that is good and positive, as a community. Right?