The mainstream media has been getting clicks of late with articles about how the Democratic Party is splitting apart at its seams, which got me in a lather, because, seriously, come on, try harder, right?
That was my thinking, literally, yesterday.
Today, I can say personally, yep, the clickbait is actually spot on.
I can confirm because, I’m among the many caught in the middle of it.
***
Yesterday, doing my job, reporting on the Neanderthals in Augusta County who pre-canceled a tentatively scheduled 2027 Pride Day at the county library, there were the usual run of comments from people in 70 percent-plus MAGA Augusta County posting on our Facebook page comments like:
- “Groomers and pedophiles don’t belong in schools.”
- “Perverts.”
- “We don’t need to subject our children to this mental illness.”
You know, typical homophobic claptrap from the far, far, far right.
We’re used to their nonsense. What was unusual was the band of keyboard warriors from the left side making the claim that I somehow stole the story from a local blogger who first brought attention to the matter, and a separate group unhappy with me for writing at the end that locals need to keep the decision to pre-cancel the Pride Day in mind “the next time the Friends of the Augusta County Library reach out to try to raise money to support this abomination.”
ICYMI
To the first issue: no offense intended here to the local blogger who first brought attention to this matter, but, I didn’t become aware of the Library Board of Trustees vote from her blog, and in any case, it’s not like she, or any other reporter who writes about any other government action, or me, when I write about a government body doing something, has copyright over the facts at hand.
Once facts are out there, they’re out there, and the Trustees vote, to me, is something that we needed to bring to the attention of folks who read AFP, and maybe don’t subscribe to the News Leader, which is where I first caught wind of the vote, or who don’t hunt and peck their way into finding out what’s going on locally using their Facebook feed.
That’s it.
The vote of the Trustees is, to me, an abomination, and we want people to know what is being done in their name, with their tax dollars.
My line about the Friends of the Library was, admittedly, an intentional dig at the group that puts on fundraisers in the supposed good name of the county library system.
My point: they don’t deserve our money, if it’s going to go to support a library system that isn’t a place that can be welcome to all.
If you, after reading my thoughts there, want to continue to support the library, by all means; I assume you have good reasons.
One reader took me to task for “wanting to withhold funds from a vital cultural institution due to the decisions of the lousy government who controls it, especially when most of the supporters and workers there do not agree with that decision, makes you sound a whole lot more like the side that canceled this event. Continued support can ultimately lead to this sort of thing not happening through programming and education.”
Since I was told why I was wrong, let me let you in on my perspective on why, to me, this “go along to get along” way of thinking is wrong.
My thinking is informed by me having been born and raised in Augusta County, having lived here all my life, having been educated in the underfunded local schools, writing about people voting in big numbers against their best self-interests, and in my 54 years, not surprisingly, literally nothing has changed, because nobody wants to do anything to effect change.
Change isn’t going to come by continuing to let the Neanderthals do what the Neanderthals are going to do.
But, sure, shoot the messenger; that’ll do everybody a lot of good.
***
Second column that ruffled feathers from the left of me was the one that I wrote yesterday in which I opined that “’fully abolishing the police and prison system’ is an obvious bridge too far,” which, dang, I know, how controversial.
ICYMI
This one got whoever it is in control of the Facebook account of a nonprofit that goes by the name Uncage RRJ, which bills itself as a “social welfare organization working to transform the Rappahannock Regional Jail into the Rappahannock Regional Restoration Center,” to play internet tough guy.
“Good thing Chris Graham ain’t around my neck of the woods,” was the first comment from the account, with two others insulting readers who had weighed in on the column as having profile pics that make them look like cops, and a third directed at a local African American woman and long-time Democratic Party activist in which the account wrote that her comment would “make MLK roll in his grave.”
I’d not come across Uncage RRJ until earlier today, when the group came up in the context of another story that we’re reporting on, involving the July 26 suicide of an inmate at the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
As is the case with the local blogger who first brought attention to the Trustees vote on the county library Pride Day, and the guy who wanted to take me to task for saying people shouldn’t support library fundraising efforts, given what has gone down there, I would like to think that we’re all very much on the same side of the ledger on things.
And yet.
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