Cutting a public figure

I actually had a different post in mind for this evening, but it can wait.

I’ve become the subject of a free-fire zone between Joe Albero and “Straight Shooter” at Off The Cuff. After Joe put up this post with a picture of me in what could appear to be an odd if not compromising situation, Straight Shooter replied thusly. Of course, it all started with this (sort of) tongue-in-cheek post I did. (Actually, with Joe’s wealth and the energy he puts into his blogging effort, he could be a politician – albeit in the William Donald Schaefer mold. It would be a test to see just how good of a businessman he really is, would it not?)

Anyway, the debate centers over whether I am a “public figure”. Obviously, having a website where I put my views in the public domain can make me a target of criticism. Add in the fact that I’m an elected official and that’s another piece of the argument in favor of Joe’s side. While people may not always walk up on the street and recognize me, those in the political realm usually do. My website doesn’t have my picture on it, maybe someplace it should. I do have pretty much a face shot on my Myspace page, linked to the right column. (As a bonus, I have a good theme song.)

Sometimes I think Joe keeps a large file of pictures of various people and items that he brings out when he feels a need to (like event anniversaries); in this case he pulled out a pretty recent picture, one which I’ll explain the circumstances with momentarily. While I like to take a lot of photos myself, generally I take them in connection with an event like a political gathering, baseball game, or band concert. Once in awhile I’ll do the usual tourist thing if I’ve been someplace new, but generally pictures that appear on monoblogue are of subjects I describe above. (I have a camera filled with shots of 12 bands from last night and more from today.)

Now as for my appearance, that I can’t do a whole lot about with the exception of weight. Considering I was 330 pounds at one point and now weigh about 260-270 (still slowly losing) I’m certainly not of an average weight but aside from the large middle and a mild case of asthma I’m blessed with pretty good health – further, like most people I’m aware that I have a family history of various maladies so I make sure that I have those particular items checked out on a regular basis.

I do have to say that some of the insinuations about which way Joe goes or that he has a double life spent at the Park n’ Ride are disgusting and I don’t believe them anyway. As for me, I’ll just say that people who truly know me know which way I look as far as THAT is concerned.

The picture of me Joe used was taken a couple weeks back at the Shorebirds Fan Fest. I actually never saw Joe and didn’t think he’d made it to the event until I saw some of his other Fan Fest pictures a day or two later. At that time, we in the Shorebirds Fan Club were taking down some of the games we’d ran, the pools in question were those used for the duck pond game and the treasure hunt game (it was filled with sand.) The gentleman whose top of his head you see was picking up the pool to carry overhead (had his back to me) and I believe I was getting ready to pick up a pail of sand or something else to carry down to the truck of the volunteer who’d provided the items.

You see, while Joe was there taking pictures (and I wonder if his grandson was there, he’d have enjoyed it) I was working one of the games in our carnival for most of the four hours the Fan Fest was ongoing. I was happy to take some of my Saturday morning and help out the Shorebirds Fan Club because I’m proud to be a member and officer. I didn’t have my camera on me to record the event but I did my best to promote it here because I’m a huge baseball fan and the Shorebirds are my adopted hometown team. Joe alluded to my post here but instead of linking to my post asked me to comment on his blog about it. (Maybe I would have but I didn’t read Salisbury News until after the fact!)

Above all, while I didn’t really want to delve into these sorts of accusations and innuendos, I thought it would be better to have my side known. I do appreciate those who have commented in my defense and hopefully I have posted this in a manner that reflects the way I attempt to write my site – with class, dignity, and a few subtle attempts at humor. To paraphrase what has been said on other occasions in other venues, if you don’t like what’s on monoblogue there’s a big “X” in the corner you can click on. But the same goes for Salisbury News and if Joe’s out of line there’s other news sources out there you can turn to that stay on a higher road.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

One thought on “Cutting a public figure”

  1. I thought your “Joe for governor” post was brilliant. I can’t figure out Joe’s consistent snipping at you. I know I left a comment on one of his anti-Swartz posts politely questioning his criticism. Personally he has never given me a bit of trouble but considering the way he has treated you, I suppose it’s only a matter of time before he targets other local bloggers unprovoked. I just can’t follow this pattern of behavior.

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