I love Blogstream, love the setup, though I do wish it had a wee bit more flexibility, and I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting some good people here.
But I'm seeing those good people leave Blogstream, one by one.
They are leaving because something has changed.
Instead of people sharing their hearts, lifting each other up, and just enjoying the blogging experience, a vicious attitude has taken hold of some bloggers towards others, 'inspiring' them to band together in attacking others, blacklisting some blogs, and even going so far as to schedule a sort of public lynching of other bloggers.
For the record, I have no desire to participate in any such 'online lynchings'. That's not what I came to Blogstream to do.
For me, blogging is an outlet to keep me from going totally whacko about politics, it gives me a venue where I can express my own outrage at all that's going on in the world. That's why Outside the Box exists, it's my own small voice joining with others everywhere to speak out.
Cherokee Musings is my heart, where I share my personal feelings, thoughts, experiences, ups and downs in life, and where I've connected with others on a more personal level.
In neither of those do I see any need to hunt down any other blogger and verbally assault them, or join with others to sandbag another human being, even though that has happened to me elsewhere in absentia on Blogstream.
An eye for an eye is just not something I believe in. Yes, I get angry, yes, it hurts like hell when I see lies told about me, yes, it's devastating for me to be falsely caste as a villain when all I've done is try to be a decent human being and raise my kids, and yes, I sometimes want to lash out and hurt someone back for hurting me. But someone somewhere has got to stop the pattern of violence, even verbal violence, so if I have to take some black eyes in the process, so be it.
Last night, we saw a total meltdown of a Blogstream blogger, when he outted himself as being not only one identity that people had come to like, but another identity, wherein he had a blog talking about his conviction and treatment as a pedophile many years ago for molesting his step daughter.
People shrieked, heads rolled, and much hell was raised, while others tried to take the high road and understand what is impossible for most of us to understand. I made a comment myself, but have since deleted it, even though I didn't attack him as others had, because I just don't think that sort of uproar is anything I really wish to be a part of.
Why?
Because I'm not God.
Yes, this person played games with others, deceived them, and even posted to his pedophile blog using his other identity, giving himself a thumbs up. Yes, that's deceptive, yes, that's self-serving, and yes, that is indicative of someone trying to rally support for himself even through devious means while still being in real denial about the true depravity of the crime he is guilty of.
But the gang bang assault on this person was not helpful at all, it angered him into shutting down his blogs, and it may well have pushed him over some mental edge into possibly taking that anger out on someone in the real world that cannot defend themselves.
Does that make us better people than him? Is everyone now content with their moral superiority over this person? Would we still feel that way if the news tomorrow talks about a young girl having been molested, or raped, and we later learned it was that very blogger who was pushed over the edge?
What would you say to God, then, when it's your turn to stand before the throne?
And I wonder how many others here on Blogstream use the same tactic themselves, even as they decry it in others?
We laugh at the old stereotype movie scenes of Frankenstein's Monster being chased through the streets by villagers with torches...but is that not exactly what happened last night?
The sad thing is that it's not the first time this has happened, and it's doubtful it will be the last. I'm getting private messages from several people, sick at heart over what they've seen being actually ORCHESTRATED behind the scenes by a handful of bloggers, in singling someone out to take them down, so sick at heart that they are now shutting down their blogs.
My GOD, since when have Blogstream bloggers become the judge, jury, and God himself, to do such a thing to ANYONE?
What's truly sad is that at least some of the main characters in this sick saga behind the scenes claim to be C H R I S T I A N S! And they wonder why people have stopped going to church......
While I'm fully aware that making this post will also most likely make me a target of the INQUISITORS among us, I do not freaking care. There comes a time when you have to stand up for what is right, regardless of the cost to oneself. And I'm taking that stand, right here, right now.
I've been the victim of such cruel and vicious actions in my lifetime. I will burn in hell before I do to another what has been done to me!
When I went through my first divorce, from a very abusive man, in a county in Georgia where his family practically OWNED everyone, including the judge, I was set up. I lost custody of my son Mark, NOT because I was unfit, the only reason given was because his father made more money working on the base.
Just last year, when my son came up to a visit, we were sitting around the bonfire alone after everyone else had gone in, and he started weeping, telling me that someone's conscience had been bothering them so much that they finally came to him and told him that, just a couple of weeks before the divorce went to trial, there had been a big barbecue, where his grandfather and father and the lawyer and JUDGE had met, and the judge ASSURED them they didn't have to worry, the fix was in.
It was a devastating revelation for my son, but a confirmation of what I'd told him all these years. We've had twenty plus years stolen from us because of evil people seeking to destroy me instead of caring about what is right. And these, too, were church going 'christians'.
After years of being terrorized in school by gangs beating the shit out of me while the teacher left the room too afraid to intervene, of fighting suicidal tendencies because my self esteem was destroyed by the vicious abuse, of being raped and never telling my family about it because I was afraid of what might happen if I went public, then going through five years of hell married to a man who regularly slammed me against the kitchen counter and kicked me and spit on me if I didn't have supper ready on the table just as he came in the door, THEN losing my son because of a corrupt good old boy network.....I've got holes all through my self esteem and ability to believe in myself about any damn thing.
All because of cruel people, who thought it was funny to hurt me, who thought they had a right to make my life a living hell for their own perverse reasons.
No, I will not participate in any scheduled or unscheduled lynchings, offline or online. For those of you who are into this sort of thing, all I can do is pray for you and ask you to leave me out of it, and I also ask that you no longer post on my blogs if you endorse such actions that cause such heartbreak and pain to other human beings.
For those of you who have been victims of these lynchings and blog blacklists, or will be victims in the future, I say to you that you are welcome here, just as if Jesus was really here right now, loving you no matter what.
Someone somewhere has to stand up and say NO. If I'm the only one who says it, then so be it. I've been alone most of my life, an outcast, the dog to be kicked, so it's familiar territory to me. Maybe no one will post on my blog after this, and that's fine by me. It will not be a black eye on me, it will only be a black eye on those whose conscience has been pricked but who don't have the freaking guts to admit to the horrible wrong they're doing, and will instead attack me for daring to speak the truth.
It won't be surprising, either, because it's a microcosm of the same hatred that I've seen take over the country I love like a damn virus. We've lost our way, people, when the cool thing is to be mean to others and tear them down, while we claim to follow Jesus.
No games here. I will not assume any other identity. I will not use another name and post on my blog as though giving myself support. I won't list any names of people I know of who have participated in these vile actions. There will be no witch hunt from me against anyone else. I will go on, be myself, be as open and honest as I've always been, and let God sort it out.
To those bloggers who have shut down their blogs, I love you, I miss you already, and I do hope you'll at least keep in contact via private messages, if you don't want to be public. You'll always be welcome here.
