I’m heartened and excited by Ethan Demme’s announcement that he is running as a candidate for Chairman of the Lancaster County Republican Committee.
His announcement was covered first by Tom Murse of the Intelligencer Journal, and then Ethan himself wrote about it on his blog.
It was by looking at this LancasterOnline story that I came late to the news that Lancaster Newspapers has, at long last, completely taken down the cesspool of faux-conversation that was the TalkBack forum. I wanted to see what the reaction was from people who likely don’t know Ethan personally (as I do).
I’m a registered Democrat who puts a lot of priorities and allegiances ahead of my political party. A healthy degree of civil discourse in our community is one of those priorities for me, and I know that’s something Ethan will bring with his chairmanship.
As for TalkBack, the first impression is that it will make it harder to quickly get a finger on the pulse of a news story as it is being received by Lancaster County residents. The truth, however, is that the mood in the TalkBack forums rarely reflected the mood of the community at large. Where will those online conversations take place now?
Your blog?
Yes! That’s the spirit! Let’s just try to keep Artie See out of it. 🙂
Despite its often blatant racism (as when a young Black man was shot and the comments amounted to his being a “jungle bunny” who deserved it), I will always remember Talkback for providing me with the title of my future memoir. That is, when I was (mis)quoted in the paper about why I was speaking at a Millersville peace rally, I got called a “so-called professor” (in my very own thread!) who ought to be fired for forcing my opinions on people during what should have been my class time, and getting paid by the state, MAH TAX DOLLERS etc.
The trouble with this argument, of course, was that the rally happened during my *free* time. Only the *students* were walking out of classes that day. I didn’t even have any classes that Thursday to allow people to walk out of!
But at any rate, yeah, I’m going with “So-Called Professor” for a future memoir title.
I love it, Gwyn! Thanks for jumping in on the so-called conversation on my blog.
Demme! Demme! Demme! Just don’t become a demme-god, so to speak…
Thanks for the kind words, I’ll be releasing my platform and more information soon so keep an eye on my website.
I’m a big believer in open government and that needs to start at the party level. If you want to know everything about me just visit google 🙂
Also all the folks from the talkback have moved over to lanctalk.com and you can get your daily dose over there if you wish.
I love having a candidate I can learn about by using the same tools I use to learn about everything else. I suppose we just need to start a Wikipedia page for you.
Thanks for the tip on lanctalk.com. I wouldn’t have found it otherwise. And now I know to avoid it. 🙂
Rather than criticize out of hand something you haven’t participated in, why not join the discussions and lend your voice to the local pulse?
Easy to belittle something when you don’t have the gumption to jump in and be heard.