Why in the world would I want to question anyone's integrity or ethics? Why would I want to imply that someone is a liar? Why would I want public officials to take exception or offense at what I say? Truth be told, I take no pleasure in these confrontations. However, they are a necessary consequence of defending our history or tradition, at least with my limited skill sets.
Understand, that there is seldom really
due diligence in public deliberation. Instead, there are agendas to be justified by public officials. That's how South Whitehall set out to accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy demolishing Wehr's Dam. That's why the Lehigh County Commissioners have been studying Cedarbrook for years, instead of actually remodeling it.
We who defend a dam, or want to see the county nursing home really be viable, must call out the officials who indulge in these dog and pony shows. They count on public decorum to allow the necessary studies to justify their pre-determined agendas. For the most part, it's called governance. For the most part, we limp by, losing a piece of our history now and then. Their hired spokespeople call it progress.
Most local newspapers are now owned by large media corporations, and the staff keep their heads down and safe. Even dissident ranting, at the beginning or end of the meetings, is no longer reported. We activists who also blog have another outlet. Although our audience may be miniscule compared to a newspaper, the truth will linger on.
ADDENDUM: Bill White in his
column today writes;
Leave it to dour blogger Michael Molovinsky, longtime critic of The Morning Call and other targets,.... Bill is very much into grammar, I suppose
dour can only be described as a pejorative adjective. Likewise, he attempts to further marginalize my endeavors by describing the Morning Call and other subjects of my scrutiny as
targets. I must be doing something right.
Why would 'the great' Bill White, who once acknowledged in print he would not be so crazy about the one-of-a-kind tax-friendly NIZ if he "lived in, say, Altoona", go out of his way to attack and impugn some small time blogger? After all, EVERYBODY knows that ALL bloggers are nothing more than unemployed misfits of society who do nothing all day long except run around in their parents' basement. In their parents underwear, of course.
ReplyDeleteThe accomplished professional writer White must somehow feel threatened by the total loser blogger he feels the need to take a pot shot at. How sad and unfortunate. Maybe White would feel more safe and secure if he worked for a local newspaper in, say, Altoona.
rolf@8:48, when I wrote my blog post about White exonerating O'Hare, they both knew that i hit the nail on the head, and that's why they were both offended. understand they they both consider themselves very clever, especially with their use of pejoratives. :)
ReplyDeleteThat was clever on your part.
DeleteWhite was, however intelligent enough to conclude that the "dour" MM, the "long-time critic of the Morning Call and other targets," was right that Bernie belonged on the list after all.
"Relentlessly severe, or gloomy in manner or appearance" - well, somebody's got to do it. Those adjectival synonyms don't define you either. Pessimism is an appropriate position to take when looking at the dam or at city council chambers these days. The world would be a poorer place without you, Bernie, and Bill on the ramparts. Each in your own ways, of course. Keep up the good work, Michael.
ReplyDeleteI like Bill White.
ReplyDeleteBut considering the sorts of nuts, drunks, coke heads, etc who have targeted him fro years, it seems to me highly insulting that he would claim that *you* have "targeted" him. There's no flattery here, just the simple fact that I have never seen you conduct yourself in any but a very gentlemanly fashion.
I'm disappointed in Bill on this count, and I hope his choice of words was merely clumsy and not malicious.
When was the last time the accomplished professional writer Bill White was "clumsy" with his choice of words? With all due respect, considering this is the great Bill White we are talking about here, the apologetic "clumsy" stuff just does not reconcile with the accomplished professional writer's modus operandi by ANY stretch of the overactive imagination. A pot shot from a Liberal Bully feeling ready to rumble from the sanctuary of his Lame Stream Media Pulpit, even blind men can see from miles away what the "dour" stuff is all about.
ReplyDeleteBernie O'Hare will have a story up tomorrow to inform the world that "Molovinsky's Tabernacle Choir" are singing loud, obnoxious songs in an obvious attempt to protect their beloved preacher. But then O'Hare would be forgetting all about the time that Molovinsky whistled me for that gross misconduct penalty in response to an Obamacare piece I wrote several years ago. Or all about any of the other 936 or so times Molovinsky saw it best to send me to the sin bin for this reason or that.
The good news is, though, that an award-winning blogger such as Bernie is completely capable of molding and shaping pretty much anything to neatly fit any particular narrative he so desires. And that means, by tomorrow morning, I can have magically transformed into being Molovinsky's biggest fan since birth. My only selfish concern here is, will I be receiving a fancy certificate to hang on the wall as a result of this whole exercise, or what?
It's really amazing, that you have not only the guts to speak up - but you work tirelessly to present intelligent / to the point / assertive statements.
ReplyDeleteMM, great picture, how did you steel it from Bernie? Was it the facebook twitter pages out there in siber space or is that picture just a hologram? The picture make-up screems integrity honor and all the good things that used to be the American make-up and is now only found in the blogsphere that makes up reel news worthy stories locally and World Wide because even us old farts don't believe the gagickles articles of fluff and stuff!
ReplyDelete