Seriously. Have you every thought of just being responsible for yourself and what you say and leaving it at that?
I understand that there are egregious things that take place here, those are just the obvious, roll your eyes, hide the hell out of comments or diaries that you have to jump on. But there are many times where it's better to chose your battles.
Imagine if the majority of people here merely took care of their own behavior, took a moment and attempted to change their own patterns of reacting, interacting and jumping on people before they responded.
I know, people smell blood in the water faster than tiger sharks near a paper cut when you dare admit you MAY be wrong, but sometimes, it happens.
I've been wrong, I have given an inch here and there. And I have gotten into back and forths that I regret because it turned out to be a huge waste of my energy and time.
Imagine taking a step back and asking yourself, "Is this worth my time and energy?" and does "Does this promote and push my overall goal on this site and elsewhere?"
The only person I am responsible for is myself. The only behavior I can influence, ultimately is my own. The only thing I can change is how I react to people, how I perceive their interactions with me and I have gone out of my way to try to understand those I don't agree with so that I could try to find some middle ground.
No really.
Because the Democratic party needs optimism and hope, even in the face of such craptastic battles. We need to find the slivers of silver in those dark clouds and the victories in every single fight we undertake, no matter how small because it needs to be shouted from the rooftops, facebook status's, tweets, you name it. Remind people, we have not given up and there is hope, somewhere.
But we need the critics and we need people who call the satan sandwich what it is. We need that as well to push us to fight harder and want to move the mountain farther than it has ever been moved. We need those people who can say, that fucking sucks.
We need the voices that can cut through the bullshit and point out how maybe, just maybe those in power may not have our best interest in mind, no matter how much they say they do. That we must push them to remember who got them there.
I believe, now matter how naive you may think it is, that many people here belong just where they are, even if I may not agree with them 100% or even 50% of the time because we need that energy, we need all those perspectives so we aren't just an echo chamber patting each other on the back for being so fucking brilliant.
Meteor Blades represents what we, at least many of us, hoped to be as members of Daily Kos. Smart, wise, discerning in what we recommend and tip and most of all, fair. I think many saw him as being able to be what we may have failed to be and his leave of absence leaves us with a feeling of, if he can't make it here, how the fuck can we? (And yes, I know that the deeply personal reasons for Tim leaving are just that, personal, but people are still projecting their own reasons. I hope that people will respect his wishes and not carry on with the idea that there are "bigger" issues at hand).
We can and we can prove that as adults, smart and better than you may even think of yourself, can moderate yourselves. Why not show MB that we can do better and we can be the better place.
I can only challenge people to try harder to be kind, to think before posting and to bend a bit in the face of things that they might not agree with, maybe even walk away from things and let someone on the internet be wrong.
I think many of us here can do it, I know I am willing to try and I have been attempting for my years here to do so and have failed a few times. It's called being human.
But the only person who really should be moderating your behavior is YOU, no one should have to babysit anyone here and least of all, Meteor Blades shouldn't have had to take on that enormous job, even as he did it with such grace, patience and a perfect amount of humanity. Why not let us show him we can do this without him and be ready for when he can return so he can write more, lead more and be here more to do great things with us rather than having to corral us.
Thank you Tim, you encouraged me to do more, to keep writing with a few others here and that means a great deal to me, more than you will ever know. Take care of you and we can take care of ourselves.