Shouldn't you know how to spell "Amendment" if you're protesting in support of one? :-)
Okay, okay. We are being funny. This is not personal against anyone. We just thought it was a little humorous. And yes, we are respectful of OWS' views no matter how much we disagree with them. We have emailed* their "general council" asking if they would like to write something on our blog, and have attempted to reach out to them numerous times. We certainly hope they do, and the invitation is always there.
* This is an exact copy of their email (except for the blanked out name). If YOU would like to contribute, the door is always open:
To
whom it may concern;
My
name is XXXX. I’m one of the main contributors for a conservative blog: www.loudmouthelephant.
First,
let me start by explaining our blog. Obviously, we are conservatives. Yes, we
have our positions, but we are only one set of eyes and ears. We think the
mainstream media is too biased, left or right. We encourage peaceful, civil
debate. Again, we do have our positions and our challenges to views, but we want
opposing viewpoints to chime in, too. If we take a position, we are going to
back it. We hope that those that agree with us back what they say as well. We
also hope that those who challenge our positions can back their views with
appropriate facts and evidence, too. If you look at our blog, it’s civil. The
topics themselves might be contentious, but the debate, the discourse between
comments and contributors is always civil and respectful. No matter how much we
agree or disagree with a viewpoint, we pledge respect. Our comments throughout
the blog show this, and we will always abide by this.
Back
to why we are emailing you. We believe in civil debate. We think you can agree
that this is lacking on both sides. We are opening up a proposition to
you.
What
do we request? Your ideas, your writing, your positions, etc. We know you have
press groups and assemblies of the like. We would like to establish a peaceful
relationship with you. We envision perhaps a direct liaison, maybe one, two,
three, etc. volunteers that would be a contributor to our blog. This would be
like any blog post, and perhaps, styled more like an opinion peace. You would
email us daily, weekly, or whatever you like and we would basically copy and
paste it to your our blog. Obviously, you would determine the title and we would
post that it is from an OWS contributor. We would not change anything you write
unless it was hurtful or dangerous. We are inviting you to have an open forum on
our blog.
What
do you we think this will accomplish? Hopefully, civil debate. Comment strings
on major news websites aren’t doing it. We want people on our side to hear your
views. We want people from your side to hear ours. We want the two sides to meet
civilly and respectfully. I would be working with you if you take this
opportunity.
What
this is not: It’s not an attempt to get you to put things on our blog to be
smeared or shot at. Again, we promote civility and our comment strings (many of
which contain debate) are very respectful. It’s not an opportunity to tell you
your positions are right or wrong. It is not an attempt to hurt, disrespect,
mock, make fun of, etc. anyone of a different viewpoint.
What
this is: It’s an attempt to simply talk and share information whether we agree
or disagree.
If
anyone, or any two, or three or whatever people are interested, please email me
back. I would be happy to work with you in a way that is beneficial for all. I
can be reached at loudmouthelephant@gmail.com
Very
Respectfully,
XXXX
LOLOLOL
ReplyDeleteUneducated pricks they are!
How about a Constitutional AMMENDMENT banning stupid protesters?!
ReplyDeleteDon't you two realize how absurd and backwards your comments are?
ReplyDelete"Again, we promote civility and our comment strings (many of which contain debate) are very respectful."
You are working against the very civility the writer of this blog is encouraging. And even suggesting a ban on protesters is silly and would hurt everyone. OWS and Tea Party and everything in between would be affected.
So try and stay calm while debates happen and form arguments, not insults.
Thank you for your comment. You are correct, we do promote civility. We are tired of the personal insults and acid-tongued attacks seen on MSM news sites. How does that promote the sharing of information? We want people to come here to engage and share ideas. We might not all agree, but the sharing of information increases the chances of opening someone's eyes to something they did not know. This is the main goal of our Reader's Posts: http://loudmouthelephant.blogspot.com/2011/12/readers-posts-our-open-forum-blog.html
DeleteThough we do promote respect and civility, we do not delete any comments or posts by anyone unless they are threatening, revealing of personal information of someone without that person's consent, or hate speech (we all know what this is, we don't need to tell people what can and cannot be said; we hope no one engages in this). We want people to see whatever anyone says. It's not a perfect world, but we hope people enjoy our open forum style.
Obviously, we do not support OWS' cause, but we are respectful of it and are certainly respectful of their right to peaceably assemble and protest. With those you are respectful of jokes are okay (as with this post above)... but there is no intent to hurt or personally insult from us.
As you can see, we have emailed OWS. We want them to talk to us. We want to understand better what they stand for. We hope they can back their positions. We most certainly stand closer to opposing positions that are backed than to agreeing positions that are not.
Are you in support of OWS? If so, would you like to write, engage, discuss, etc? If not, no biggie. But thank you again, and we hope to hear back from you!
(Anonymous above) While I do generally side with the OWS movement, I am without a doubt not as well versed as many of you and others are. I am definitely intrigued by this blog and will most likely engage in some future debates as you seem to be a great moderator and debater, but I cannot, in good conscience, stand on a soapbox as a spokesperson for OWS.
DeleteThat's not to say I'm not educated and read on the issues and believe me, I love arguing/debating civilly more than my dog. I think both sides definitely have some fantastic points. Maybe if I'm feeling bold one day I'll message you about at least posting a point of view piece from OWS/Donkeys. ha.
I'll be back...
Nick - Thank you for your post!
DeleteWe aren't looking for OWS' view. Well, we are... but we want those that believe in what they believe to inform us as to why they believe. Anything you have to say, no matter how much I or this blog disagree with it, will be respectfully received. You don't have to be a spokesperson for OWS, just a spokesperson for Nick :-)
I understand your reservation, but the purpose of this blog is to be a bulletin board (albeit, we are conservatives) for sharing information. I would definitely love to hear anything you have to say on this or any relevant* subject.
Thank you very much and I sincerely hope to hear back from you. If you know of anyone else who would probably like to comment/write or just have something to say here, please pass it on.
*Relevant as in pertaining to this blog. Trust me, I don't want to get into civil debates about American Idol. :-P
LME - Did you send that letter to me? It hasn't shown up in the mail yet! :)
ReplyDeleteNicely written! I hope they take you up on your offer. I think it was very forward thinking - dare I say, PROGRESSIVE thinking. :)
I like this forum and appreciate the civility of it. Hopefully they see the same!
HAHA - I sent it directly to the email address on their OWS website (I think it was to the "General Assembly." Unfortunately, that was in December. They did acknowledge but said they were busy and would get back to me. I have since e-mailed twice, but I have not received any further correspondence.
DeleteI think it would be good for them. We are getting a lot of traffic, and I think the majority of it is from people like you: those who want to see real, insightful, respectful sharing of opinions. Sure, there are some disrespectful, foul-mouthed people here... but I think most are like you and I. We have zoomed through 11,000 visitors, and that kind of traffic might help OWS either gain supporters or express their views so that people can at least see what they're about. We are finding out that people are bookmarking/favoriting us and are stopping by daily. Heck, we aren't the gold standard of blogging, but, as you can see with our Reader's Posts for example, we just merely want to be an (albeit, conservative leaning, but not closed to anyone) bulletin board.
I hope we get some response from them. I think any kind of information sharing is good. Do you yourself want to write, or do you know any OWS folks that would?
I don't and wouldn't. Though I support alot of what they stand for and how they do it, I do not support all of it and, quite frankly, don't understand why they do some of the things they do. I've been on a few local Occupy Philly marches and had gone down to several GA's when they were at City Hall but I was VERY opposed to the way they forced PPD to force them out - Philly PD had and has acted as national role models, in my opinion, on how to handle the protests which, as you know, I believe they have every right to do (even the camping out aspect of it). What they did was, in my opinion, very disrespectful and hypocritical as they were preventing area workers from commencing a redevelopment project for the area they occupied (and they knew this going in). So, although I am somewhat of a supporter, I am far from their spokesperson!
DeleteI too hope that a representative of theirs becomes engaged here!
btw LME - I think the guy holding the sign is the same person who does math over at Fox News! :)
ReplyDeleteLOL - I think you hit the nail on the head!
Delete