The power of many?

Yesterday I had an e-mail from a friend who sent me the picture gracing the tail end of yesterday’s post and made the comment that perhaps it was a cause that the local bloggers could get behind as a team, rather than fight and bicker over petty (and not-so-petty) differences. It’s why I concluded with the paragraph,

And if Joe Albero will volunteer to be dunked I will too. I’d add my other fellow blogger Jonathan Taylor to the list but honestly I don’t know if he’s physically able to climb into the booth. Regardless I suspect there may be a lot of people lined up just to take potshots at the local bloggers…as long as it’s for a good cause I can get a little wet.

No word from either protagonist yet; however, I mulled over the concept last night and this morning and it does make sense in many ways. Let’s take as an example an event I participated in last year for the first time, the Wicomico County Relay for Life. That’s a pet cause of mine because I have two close family members battling cancer (and winning so far!) When I did the Relay last year I actually was a part of a team sponsored by the Lower Shore Young Republicans.

(Just as an aside, the LSYR’s work well as an example of a group put together for a political purpose yet serving their fellow man – besides the Relay for Life team they’ve also sponsored a food drive earlier this year and are planning more charitable activities on a regular basis.)

Now if you look at my “Eastern Shore” and “Delaware” links there are 30 blogs listed; perhaps 15 to 20 of them either originate from or have a contributor who lives in the local Salisbury/Wicomico County area. When you multiply that by the effect of those local blogs with multiple contributors there may be 50 to 70 people who toil in the area writing words with a pen that’s carrying a whole lot of venom in some cases.

But if you found a common cause that these 50 to 70 people could get behind and put aside their differences for at least a short time, then we could do a lot of good for the community. The trick would lie in two areas:

• A cause with a lasting effect. I was reading another site this morning talking about a get-together to clean up a particular area of Salisbury – that’s a nice effort, but why don’t those residents take the bull by the horns and just keep the area clean in the first place? I take care of my yard.
• Not having a “me-first” attitude. Certainly it’s good to be recognized and perhaps get a few more eyeballs focused on one’s site but sometimes we need to follow the sign Ronald Reagan kept on his desk, “There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

To continue my example, imagine what a team of 50 bloggers could raise for an event such as Relay for Life. It would certainly help to counteract the perception that local bloggers are a “cancer” (no pun intended) on the area because all they do is fuss, fight, and make personal attacks on each other rather than work for the betterment of the community.

Obviously some people will ask what’s in it for me and my site. I’ve been toiling at monoblogue now for just over 3 1/2 years – counting my previous site it’s been over 4 years, or nearly 10% of my entire life. (Scary.) In that time I’ve seen a lot of blogsites come and go but if anything they send mixed signals about the quality of life around here and overall I think there’s a negative perception about what we do because so many of them are or were personality-based. (I know I’d get burnt out on this had I gone that way; that’s why I include sports and local music with the personal and political.)

I know better than to expect the quote attributed to Rodney King…

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?…It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice….Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out.

…but it would be nice to be known as a group for something positive for a change.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer. View all posts by Michael