Blogging vs Civility

I started blogging with the encouragement of Dave Oliveria of the Spokesman-Review blog, Huckleberries around three years ago. During that time, many changes have happened. During the early years,some thought of the blog as an open chat room where anything went. They were wrong. Some left in a huff because those of other political persuasions offended them. I kind of hung around, realizing that among those shrill voices was an occasional pearl of wisdom.

I started my own blog, and as the years passed, changed directions several times. Now that I am writing for the Spokesman-Review, I feel a responsibility to not carry that image down, and have toned my invective down. Objectivity in journalism is the name of the game. Outside of columns and editorials, news is supposed to be news, not your personal opinion. Most of the time that works.

Still, on the blog, and I just finished perusing the Huckleberries blog, stopping to comment as needed, the blog that has nurtured me from the start,is deteriorating into a shrill,emotional lack of knowledge, and so blatantly biased, as to insult the casual reader. You see, even if it is terribly satisfying to vent all of your prejudices out loud in front of God and everybody,don't you think that backing an opinion with logic and thoughtful discourse would be more enlightening?

Every subject, it seems, that brings a national issue, or even a local one, to bear, attracts a mob of less than literate snobs of whatever political persuasion, into a mob of people akin to those that turn over buses and set fire to things that have no connection to the people they oppose. If there are any people that would like to comment on these issues that can actually read this then intelligently reply, I would welcome those comments.