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January 31, 2006
Some days my head just hurts!
Ok, I have a strict policy of trying to help as many people as possible in my average day. I send emails to people because it's just effective as calling and it doesn't require me to gather a lot of things together. Most of the time people find my presence distracting. I'd love to believe it's my commanding personality, but my wife has kindly informed me that it's because I'm so elitist to most people I scare them or annoy them instinctively. Which ever, the effect is the same. It just ends up being a counter productive exercise for me to attempt. Today was a perfect example. I decided that I could no longer ignore the Republican smear on Wikipedia against one of my favorite local candidates. I've sent emails about it several times over the last year since I noticed it. A local Republican hate group focused on guns has been defaming my candidate for quite a while. I know I could just fix it myself, but if I do it nobody learns anything from the exercise. The entire give a man a fish parable. Anyway, so I'm finally in a foul mood and looking for something to do with my negative energy. So I decided to take the direct approach in spite of my rules against it. So I give the Candidate's office a call.
The conversation as I remember went like this:
Me: Hello I'm Jamison, I'm a Maryland Blogger, I noticed that the Candidate's Wikipedia entry has been replaced with a Republican smear, you need to fix that.
Them: What's a Wikipedia?
Me (with my brain now hurting): Wikipedia is an online Encyclopedia that anyone can update.
Them: Why would anyone trust something anyone could update?
Me: It's just as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica.
Them: How old are you?
Me: 32?
Them: So would you say that people your age would trust this Wikipedia.
Me: It's the gold standard for people my age and younger.
Them: Would you say that you're liberal, conservative, or centrist?
Me: I'd say liberal. (*Yeah, I'm a right winger exposing a radical right wing conspiracy because I'm a good person, yeah right!*)
Them: Thank you for your help, we will look into this.
My head is hurting so badly now. This is how I'm actually going to have to fix problems with the Democratic party isn't it? I'm going to have to get physically involved! Ridiculous!! This is not to imply any grief on a volunteer working at a Candidate's office. They were prefectly reasonable. It's just the fact that we are in different worlds all together. I think the first thing I'm going to have to fix is the email block so I can get my emails to those who need to be listening. They sure have things set up to work one way, but I'm done with that kind of Democracy...it's time for things to change! I want access to my elected officials.
Posted by ManDrake at January 31, 2006 4:01 PM
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Comments
Um this explains A LOT!! If they are all this clueless out there then it's no wonder the Republicans are in power!
Posted by: Dianne at January 31, 2006 4:07 PM
Don't know how many times I've said, "Oh, I found that on Wikipedia!" and the other person said, "What???" Surprisingly they are often people my own age, too.
Posted by: cjmr at January 31, 2006 6:12 PM
Oh please don't tell me you 'trust' Wikipedia!
Posted by: Ellen at January 31, 2006 6:49 PM
Actually, that's pretty accurate--I 'trust' Wikipedia, but I don't trust it. It is an excellent source to find links to find more information about things. And in the fields I usually research things on on it--linguistics, astronomy, etc... I have yet to find any information that I knew or could prove was false.
Posted by: cjmr at January 31, 2006 6:58 PM