The cancer revisited

It was a few days ago that remarks by Salisbury mayor Barrie Parsons Tilghman were splashed across national news. Well, perhaps splashed may not be the proper word but word has trickled out slowly about the comments she made regarding local bloggers. Yeah, I’m sure she was referring to one in particular but we all get tarred by the same brush.

In fact, my blogger friend Bob McCarty wrote to me regarding this incident and asked:

Are you the object of the mayor’s scorn?  Seems like an opportunity to write as if you are.  Have fun!

To be perfectly honest I doubt that I am the subject of her wrath simply because I’m not writing this website to create controversy but instead to provoke thought and hopefully change minds to a more correct style of thinking.

I indeed have fun writing this website, unfortunately I don’t always have the time I’d like to devote to it with my new line of work. Sometimes in life one has tradeoffs and this is mine. In this case that fact is neither here nor there; what matters is the impression made of our small town and its blogosphere. You could call us muckrakers or mudslingers, depending on how you see what we aim to accomplish.

For me, Tilghman’s comments harken back to those made about 2 1/2 years ago when the local blogging roster was somewhat different. Then-County Executive hopeful Ron Alessi called Salisbury-area bloggers a “cancer” in the local media and perhaps made local media stars out of one or two. But I took great offense to that statement (as I do with Tilghman’s) because, deserved or not, we all are lumped together regardless of whose side we’re on.

Far from attempting to bring down the community, my job is to improve it. Tomorrow night I’m going to take my notebook and pen and transcribe the happenings at the candidate forum jointly sponsored by the Wicomico County Republican Club and the Democratic Club of Wicomico County. That’s not to say I’m not going to sprinkle my opinion on what’s said there into the retelling, and I’m certainly going to think about good questions to ask each candidate pairing. Some may find my questions biased but I don’t have any dogs in these fights – unfortunately the two best candidates in my estimation go up against each other in a City Council race while it’s Tweedledee against Tweedledum in the other two slots insofar as I’m concerned.

But the idea is to inform whatever voters happen to stop by my site as to what the candidates say and what I think it means for the future of Salisbury. Perhaps I don’t live in the city proper, but a number of my current and prospective clients do and it’s in all of our best interests to make the city the best it can be, regardless of which bloggers may be offended.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

4 thoughts on “The cancer revisited”

  1. We all know who the mayor is referring to when she blasts “bloggers.” Of course, she does not seem to have any problem with negative blogs that defend her! She is simply trying to score political points for her favored candidates, but once again this strategy backfired for two reasons. First, the hypocrisy of feeding info to a negative blog while decrying negative blogs is obvious. Second, as you’ve noted, the mayor likes to paint in broad brushstrokes. Sure, some of the blogs occasionally go overboard, but they also serve a vital function in our society. Blogs are smply a modern version of the old penny press, which was notorious for hoisting politicians by their own petards. Some are better at it than others, some are more responsible than others, but to say that blogs are the biggest problem facing this city is simply ludicrous.

  2. “to say that blogs are the biggest problem facing this city is simply ludicrous”

    The biggest problems are that with Salisbury almost collapsed from single motherhood, unmarried cohabitation, crime, and a racial hatred divide, Jim Ireton could “map the bottom of the Wicomico River” which might be considered a good, but he would completely ignore these greater problems.

    Jim Ireton understands nothing about encouraging traditional families which would help lessen the laundry list mentioned previously.

  3. Sir:

    That blog to which you have a link posted on this site – “Salisbury Grinch” — is much more nasty than Albero (or have you noticed?). You are known by the company you keep, pal!

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