A second wave that’s up in arms

As a student of the local blogosphere, I’ve noticed that there’s quite a few sites that have sprang up over the last few weeks and months where particular people who have an axe to grind with those in authority place themselves on a Blogspot site (or in some cases actually get their own domain name) and put their opinions out for everyone to see. Today I added a few more links to local sites that fit this bill under “Delmarva Bloggers” and I’m sure that there’s similar sites to these in other small towns up and down Delmarva.

While this trend is as old as the blogosphere (remember the excitement when Duvafiles first became known, or the late lamented Justice For All or Crabbin?), it rarely makes headlines. But local media took notice earlier this week when Salisbury City Councilwomen Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen began their own website in order to get news out about happenings in the city of Salisbury, leading to a citizens’ meeting last night that a couple dozen people attended. Because this wasn’t a meeting sponsored by the city, it came across to many as a backdoor effort to influence what went on within the city’s administration – arguably, a regime which deserves further scrutiny because of a series of tardy audits and questionable dealings with developers.

Similarly, those mostly anonymous scribes in smaller hamlets are attempting to catch that same lightning in a bottle Campbell and Cohen have found and shine that light on the wrongs that they perceive happening where they live. But for the most part, these bloggers work outside the sphere of local government and it’s more newsworthy when two who are in the inner circle make this sort of grassroots effort.

On the other hand the same anonymity that can protect some who write what they feel about local affairs can also make them appear to be a more dubious source. Certainly Campbell and Cohen are in their position because the voters trusted them with the task, but it is possible that others who blog on their local affairs have positions within their own town’s government and risk their livelihood by being whistleblowers. I’ll grant the possibility, but in general if your information is good you should have no need to hide behind a screen name. I allow commenters to do so under a screen name, but 99% of the time I at least give my first name when I comment. I don’t worry about hiding my identity too much because anyone with a little bit of common sense can deduce who I am anyway by tracing it back to my website. (There’s only seven on our Central Committee, and I’m the only Michael. Plus I swear Joe Albero must have 200 pictures of me anyway, counting the blurry ones.)

There is one thing that all of these sites and millions more on the Internet want, and that’s change. Not the lip service paid to it by politicians who promise the world but only seem to do just enough around the edges to keep getting reelected term after term while the root of the problem isn’t addressed, but structural changes in how things are accomplished. In short, they seek to make life easier and better and if that comes at the expense of those who have grown plump at the trough of taxpayer money, them’s the breaks. Most of these bloggers look at things in the town or county they live in, while others like me look at the bigger picture – in my case, trying to educate readers on the benefits of liberty and smaller government at all levels.

We live in a golden age of being able to place our opinion on a worldwide forum for relatively little cost. But the day may be coming where this medium will be taken away by those who have the wherewithal and the lust for absolute control to do so. It’s this thought that should make us redouble our efforts to bring about the sort of change that does solve our problems while the opportunity still exists.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.