Comments on: Health Care: A Response to Ellie

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:25:59 +0000

Ellie, I have frequently pulled comments out for discussion, so it’s not just that it’s my blog, etc.

I don’t believe you think I am a Communist (this is getting convoluted ); I was responding to what I see on TV. The people holding up signs equating to Obama to Hitler astonish me. What planet do they come from?

I would be careful about assuming that nobody reads comments. In fact, a lot of people have their readers set up to follow the dialog. That’s the whole point of blogging — to engage. Some comments become so complex they are hard to engage with, and it’s easier to start a new post.

By: Maia

Maia — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:45:36 +0000

for what it’s worth, our republic has a governance model of “representative democracy” so it’s a bit misleading to say we are one or the other. we are both.
hurrah for public discourse on important issues. let’s all keep talking about health care in measured, factual ways so we can fix it.

By: ellie

ellie — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:51:17 +0000

Karen – Of course not, that would be silly.

What I’m saying is that I was rather taken aback by your posting a response in this manner and not, for instance, in the comments of the original post. The difference being that your words will be read by hundreds or thousands, while anything I could say in response will be read by far fewer.

Perhaps this is something you do often – I had not seen it before. Regardless, it’s your blog and it’s clearly your right.

I would like to say that my intention in commenting on your original entry was to share, with an open heart, some reasons why I am not excited about this current proposal, not to challenge your right to have an opinion. I do not think you are a Nazi, and I have no idea if you are a Communist (and would fight for your right to be one, in any case), and it hurt to read that last sentence.

By: K.G. Schneider

K.G. Schneider — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:22:07 +0000

Ellie, your response mystifies me. You posted questions publicly on this blog. I did what I have done elsewhere with long, involved blog comments, which is respond to them in a new post.

Are you saying that I should have responded privately to your public questions?

By: Ellie Dworak

Ellie Dworak — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:03:20 +0000

Karen, while you of course have every right to respond to my comments, and I stand by them, it would have been respectful and kind to have discussed it with me first. You have misinterpreted nearly everything I’ve said, perhaps because I am not nearly as eloquent as you are, and a brief email conversation would have cleared that up, rather than your taking me to task on a national forum.

By: Robin Hastings

Robin Hastings — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:13:45 +0000

That is a beautiful post, Karen. I’ll be passing this around – especially to my family – when tempers start to fray during discussions this year…

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:05:43 +0000

Nice post Karen.

Today LIS News linked to an excellent commentary at the SF Chronicle: “The Menace of the Public [library] option.”

Ellie (and other conservative librarians) who fear a public option should read it.

http://lisnews.org/menace_public_library_option