This blog’s policy on anonymous comments

Someone’s been leaving me anonymous comments that I have rejected. My doing this is driving him crazy, because he keeps leaving more, almost daily. I say “he” because I’m 99.9% sure I know who’s leaving them. Based on the context of his comments, he knows journalism and he knows about my 3 years at the Trib…information only an insider would know (unless he’s writing on hearsay, which he wouldn’t dare, since he accused me of doing that). He also wants to know if I know what editors do (he helped me out there, just in case: They edit.), and in fact, I do! When I’m not writing for a living, I’m editing. Or indexing. Or doing taxonomy (not to be confused with taxidermy, which is just, well, yuck). See the pattern…words. I work with words.

This particular reader so very obviously doesn’t like me, yet he’s taking time out of his life to read my blog. Often. Only he doesn’t seem to read anything except the very first column, waaaaaaaaaaay at the bottom of the blog…the one about why I left the Trib and the Beacon. And he’s getting madder because I won’t give him a voice here in my own personal space. So I figure it’s time to let ya know where I stand on anonymous comments:

I’ve got no problem with them (there are many here on the blog already, and not all are positive) as long as they discuss issues and related topics and are not personal attacks. The guy who’s leaving these snarky comments needs to get over whatever it is he’s so angry about and stop visiting The Front Porch because it obviously raises his blood pressure. Life’s too short to focus on all that negative energy.

Intelligent discussion of a topic is one thing; I welcome that with open arms or I’d never have started writing my column in 2003. I’d be an idiot to think everyone agrees with all the things I say…that’s not the point (and where’s the value in that?). The point is to find a maturity level where we can disagree, discuss, and agree to disagree if we must. When that happens, everyone, including myself, walks away having looked at something from a different perspective.

If you’re not capable of doing that, don’t leave a comment. I won’t publish it. On the other hand, if what you’re really after is just to be sure I know you don’t like me without telling me who you are, then leave the comment with the understanding that I’ll read it, but no one else will. However, keep this in mind:

In this lifetime, I’ve been married and divorced; made the horrible, unintended mistake of leaving my baby in a vehicle unattended (wrote about that one long ago); cremated my mother and a son; have been cheated on, lied to, beaten up, and sexually assaulted (haven’t written about that one). I’m a liberal living in a religious-right society that cares more about keeping gays from marrying than it does starving children and underfunded schools. My president almost choked himself to death on a pretzel while his right-hand man so adeptly shot his hunting partner in the face, and these are the representatives of my country. There’s a war in Iraq; the disastrous effects of Katrina; our CIA leaks information, and the federal deficit is bigger than ever. Global warming is a serious, threatening issue despite what our administration wants us to believe, and people actually want us to replace sex ed with abstinence-only misinformation, science with Intelligent Design. If I want to worry about something, it won’t be whether or not someone likes me.

My life has graciously brought me enough experience to know that what truly matters in this world isn’t so much what others may think of me, but what I know to be true of myself.

So anonymous comments? Keep ’em comin’…but if you’re going to act hateful, go sit on your own Front Porch.