They Who Doth Protest Too Much

I'm starting today's special edition blog post by being very upfront about a few things.

As to these Facebook groups that have started in this 2020 election cycle, and claim to be influencing the elections in Howard County, I think this. "Howard County Neighbors United" is a cesspool. It reeks of intolerance and is one-sided to the nth degree. But it's not called "Howard County People who Opposed School Redistricting", it's called what it's called and that's a huge misnomer. And I believe I met the fellow who runs it one time in passing, and had one very brief, albeit condescending and borderline bullying (from him to me), interaction with him on Facebook. Just seems like an average guy who has some opinions I disagree with. Looking forward to that day when we have to see each other person again, because I wonder if his courage in front of the keyboard equals that behind it.

Another group, "Better Howard Together", is more septic tank than cesspool. A rational discussion is possible there for about an hour or two, then it devolves into one political agenda or another. But there does seem like a bit of containment there. Hence my tank comparison.

Among other things I think, I think it's bad form to leave a list of campaign supporters, contacts, volunteers, etc. unsafe. I'm one of the people who received that email on Saturday morning from the Molyett campaign, presumably because he's been on Forward Maryland a couple of times and because I sent some postcards for his campaign. But those things don't, and never have, stopped me from calling an error and so I'm calling one here. I'm sure Matthew Molyett and his campaign have recognized the gaffe-- why else would they have sent out the email?

And it's also personally crappy and low on the ethics scale to take that spreadsheet, announce that you have it, and/or spread it around. And yet, that's what some people have done. What, pray tell, are you, Mr. and Ms. Cyber Stalker, going to find there? Secret ties to the developer community? That if you go to sheet 4, cell AF367, type in "Sega", that you can play "Zaxxon"? What's the point and/or value? Ahhh, the point and/or value is simply that you can. Well, that's not a good answer. My opinion? Taking that spreadsheet and spreading it around is cyberbullying. Full stop.

And so we have a local blogger who writes The Howard County Progress Report who called this out. Especially because one of our more longer-term bloggers in the HoCo wrote that indeed, he had downloaded the spreadsheet, and posted that he had downloaded it. In her (the new blog writer's) opinion, we should be more mature as a community than to take someone's mistake and amplify it across local cyberspace.

And she is right. Just because you can do something doesn't make it OK to do. For whoever downloaded this spreadsheet and is currently going through it's contents to find something you may find odd, shame on you. You're despicable and immoral. You have all the right in the world to public sources of data and information, but you don't have the right to private data and information. End of story.

And we people who write blogs (I have never thought of myself as a "blogger", rather, an experienced activist and concerned citizen who happens to write a blog), we are not the local equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein. To be honest, we're too flawed. Because of our connections to the establishment. Or developers. Or other peoples' businesses. Or our own businesses. We are all flawed messengers with our own biases. So we have two choices. We either accept our flaws, grow comfortable with them and move forward (I'd like to think I have done this), or we reject the above and just do what we're gonna do under some facade of "impartiality". Which is what seems to be going on here in this case.

And that latter path is cool-- if you wanna do it, you do you. But don't hold yourself up as the paragon of impartiality, when you yourself don't understand the concept. You can't have it both ways. And also, don't gripe about it when someone holds up to your face what you fail to recognize. We all fail to wear a full suit of clothes sometime.

Wow, I just wrote the word "fail" in a blog post about Howard County? What? How could Howard County fail at anything? But, unfortunately, I find the quality of online dialogue in Howard County failing in election cycle 2020. I never felt this way in 2014 (maybe it was because this blog led the way then, haha), but also not in 2016 or in 2018, when I feel that the exact same blog I discussed above (without attribution, I know, but you'll be able to figure it out) really shined. But I feel that way now. And I'm starting to feel like retirement and moving from the HoCo in 14 years can't come soon enough.

Go Dodgers. And I LOVE Zaxxon!

Let's be careful out there.

Comments

[LisaM]

Thank you!.... for showing up and telling it like it is. You can always be counted on to mop up the mess. I too, look forward to the day when I can leave this county far behind. The only thing that makes living here tolerable is the fact that I no longer have children in the toxic school system. For a county that espouses a "Choose Civility" lifestyle as it's motto, I find living here very, very uncivil.