Day 100. I guess there should be some be extravaganza to celebrate the day, though this technically is only entry 99 since I did miss that one day way back when. But I am not in the extravaganza mood anyway. I should be but I just can't get up for it.
As some of you know, I am a fan of former PittGirl, now That's Church blogger Virginia Montanez. Her blogging is quite funny, and thought provoking, If only I were to reach such a level. But with that level comes issues all their own, namely a political opinion or two that gets uttered doesn't upset one or two people, but rather hundreds as was the case when she blogged recently about being a Republican, albeit a moderate one on most issues. Given the Democratic stronghold (or is that stranglehold) here it Pittsburgh, simply by uttering the words opened up the Pandora's box. Many locals who were readers were shocked (though any substantial reading of her blog would have given away that little secret) and vowed never to read her blog again, or sent vile emails and messages to her for having the gall to say she had previously voted for G W Bush in 2004.
Don't get me wrong I am not a Republican, even if I tend to be fiscally conservative and this isn't going to be an attack on those who have attacked her, because a) she is better at dealing with such things than moi, b) the chance that someone actually reads hers and my blog are about the same as someone splitting an atom with a spatula and c) anyone, myself included, who decides to venture into the forest of blogging knows full well all of the potential pitfalls that come with it. In her previous PittGirl incarnation when her blog was anonymous, her outing cost here a job, so I am sure she knows full well all that can go wrong in this sphere of communication. Just as I have no doubt that should I try to venture back into the world of radio someday, the words I write now could very much be used against me in such a prospect, they may already have been and I just don't know it. The thing for me is I don't care. Whatever is spilled out on the page is part of me, and part of what any potential employer buys into when they hire me. If it were to come to a choice of a radio job versus my blog it is a no brainer, it's the blog that wins. Not that I wouldn't want a radio gig, but I will not be censored outside of the workplace. That's a deal breaker.
Where Virginia and I seem to part ways however is in the people we attract to our respective pages. Obviously she has far greater numbers than I, though hers are more locally inclined therefore most of her audience is Democrats, whereas for whatever reason I have seemed to have attracted a significant number of Republicans (at least according to My Peeps on the homepage) despite being a Democrat. Like Virginia, I tend to jump the fence rather than be tied up in a single party's ideology. I have no problem going to the polls and yanking the lever for a Republican if I believe he or she is the best person for the job, most recently I did just that thing in voting for our new governor Tom Corbett. I have also been on record in this blog one more than one occasion defending the Supreme Court decision in Bush v Gore, a sore spot to this day with many in my own party. I tend to view myself as an equal opportunity offender in that regard. But thankfully, for whatever reason, maybe it is the lack of readers, or maybe because I come from a rather reasoned stance, I haven't been subjected to the venom that has been cast Virginia's way recently. For that I guess I have to say thanks to you, the readers, for that.
See, it wasn't that bad of a 100th entry after all.
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