Censored

On Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:17:25 -0600 Mark Barna wrote:


>Hi Spydra,
>
>I appreciate your interest in The Pulpit, but in recent weeks you
>have been making personal attacks on other Pulpit bloggers. I have
>received complaints about you from other posters and felt action
>had to be taken.
>
>You mention Richard B. as a colleague of yours. As you many know,
>Richard B. has the same email address as ManitouMon and
>TruthForce, both of whom were banned by our comments editor. He
>cannot post on Gazette.com, so he's chosen to post on The Pulpit
>blog.
>
>If you can refrain from attacking others and remember the Golden
>Rule, you will be allowed to post on The Pulpit.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Mark Barna
>Gazette Religion Reporter

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From: spydra@hush.com
To: wayne.laugesen@gazette.com, jeff.thomas@gazette.com, mark.barna@gazette.com
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:14:36 -0600

Mark,

I already wrote you once personally in response to the Chagoya
article you posted, expressing my sadness and outright grief with
regard to the anti-Christian sentiments you persistently foment and
encourage on your blog; your only response was to begin deleting my
comments in retaliation. With all due respect, please show me what
I wrote prior to your Chagoya article that you perceived as an
impermissable attack.

I did not indicate Richard B. as a "colleague"; I did, however,
notice that his complaints about the number of gay stories you post
were similarly taken down. His sentiments echoed mine, and were
not inflammatory in any way - certainly not nearly as inflammatory
as those you permit against Christianity. As such, I felt and
expressed a sense of kinship with him. I do not follow the soap
operas of the people who comment on your blog, and know nothing
else about Richard B., the others you mentioned below, or any of
the others who comment on your blog.

Mark, I recognized you at the demonstration James Tucker
coordinated in protest of "Journey", the boat made out of black
people that sat in front of the county courthouse for a year; I was
standing right beside him as you interviewed him. I'd always
wanted to meet you, believing that if only I could share a word
with you in person, it might help bridge the enormous divide that
exists between you and I...and so when you were finished, I
approached you.

"Aren't you Mark Barna," I asked. "Yes," you said with a smirk
before walking away dismissively...and I will never forget the
amused lack of empathy that was evident in your entire demeanor.
When the Gazette finally ran its equally unsympathetic story about
the sculpture's eventual removal, the vitriolic anti-black comments
were so toxic they made me weep.

When this newspaper was still called the Gazette Telegraph, it was
my teacher; I learned to read and write while gazing at the words
printed thereon. This paper taught me about freedom of speech and
freedom of the press; forty years later, I cannot believe what the
Gazette permits when it comes to insulting blacks and Christians
and Doug Bruce and conservatives, and what it protects and censors
when it comes to liberals and homosexuality.

Believe me when I tell you that I have refrained, tempered my
words, and held myself back; if anyone complained about something
I've said, it's because they couldn't think of a clever enough
retort. It would seem that some people can dish it out, but can't
take it, and I've been unfairly silenced for nothing more than
speaking my mind.

Certainly, Mark, I'll follow the Golden Rule - that's the one where
people are to do unto others as they would have others do unto
them, right? But will you do the same?

- spydra