When I started this blog more than four years ago, it was because I had something to say and felt like my opinion was not one of those being voiced elsewhere. Whether anyone read it or not wasn’t an issue; it was just me putting it out there. As time has passed, I’ve learned an awful lot from interacting with people – both those that agree with me and those that don’t. For me, those are the two biggest upsides of having this blog.
But there are some downsides. One is that, despite my comment policy, some will push the envelope. Those people are pretty easily dealt with. Harder to deal with, sometimes, are the emails that come through the Contact me link at the top of the blog.
I get a lot of wonderful emails from people who cannot or will not post a comment here. But those can be overshadowed by the venomous ones that come through. Such is the case of one I received this morning. If a Leonard Pitts column appears in The Virginian-Pilot, if there is a column anywhere on the issue of race – like a recent one in the Seattle Times – you can best believe that I’m getting an email from this guy – one filled with such racist drivel that his emails are no longer allowed to be delivered to anyone at the Pilot. He has been banned from commenting on PilotOnline, he has been banned from commenting on this blog. And no doubt, I’ll get another email once he reads this post.
I thought he had discovered me when my article, The struggle toward inclusiveness, appeared in the paper. Not so. Recently, I was cleaning out some old papers and ran across a letter that he had written to me years ago. The content of his letter was the same, only the medium was different.
I could turn off the Contact Me link, but that wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. I could post some of his comments, but most wouldn’t get past my spam filter. Besides, I refuse to give a platform to racists.
Sometimes, there’s a lot more to running a blog besides posting an article or two.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Most of us support a polite, and open discussion of ideas. Our citizens get a daily pounding from the media that teaches bad manners. Media figures used to exercise great care to demonstrate good manners, but today such figures can be seen shouting over one another and simply cutting-off the comments of their supposed on-air guests.
We need a return to civility and open discourse where all ideas are on the table.
I recently read that our illustrious federal government (specifically DHS) has a project in place to block controversial websites. I have not confirmed if this is yet another fabrication, like to rumor that Obama was going to ban the purchase of most ammunition types, but it appears that there are many efforts underway (both government initiated and from individuals) to suppress the open discussion of ideas.
I would prefer open forums where ideas of every sort were freely displayed and honestly evaluated by the community on the merits of each idea.
I think that useful blogs, at least those open ones that welcome all ideas are becoming rare. This is an unfortunate development for America, and the world. The web initially created a renaissance of open thought similar to that of the era of this nation’s founding. However, we increasingly see efforts to suppress ideas and to only allow ideas deemed to be “politically correct” to be heard.
Common tactics, aside from banning commentators from blogs, is to float rumors that the author is a racist, a misogynist, a pedophile, or all three.
All such censorship does, is drive supposedly unpopular ideas underground, adding mystique to such banned ideas and strengthening them, sometimes beyond their actual merit.
It is far better to encourage an open discussion that promotes the public examination of ideas so that they must stand on their own merit. That is the American way.
Sounds good in theory. But the reality is that there are those out there who have no desire to engage in civility. And that’s where I draw the line.