To My Trolls, With Love

Among all the genuinely nice people who contact me through this blog, I seem to have picked up a couple of trolls. Oh well.......I always knew they were out there! But here's the thing: everyone else is not always going to agree with me, and I am not always going to agree with everyone else. Most of the time, that is not a problem. For instance, on this blog, I have been known to make fun of Republican politicians. I have been making fun of such individuals since I was knee high to a grasshopper, and I do not intend to stop. Don't misunderstand, I have, on two occasions, voted for Republican candidates in local elections, because according to the information I had, they were the BEST people for the job each one wanted, but I will probably always find something about which to call out a Republican. It's nothing personal inasmuch as my friends and associates are concerned. I also bust on Fundamentalist Christians.....the ones who keep pestering yours truly to convert, yet never giving her a solid reason to believe what they have to say. I do not believe any more is required in terms of explanation for this, so I will move on to the next group of people I occasionally "hate on" here in Siri's World, and that includes anyone who murders, kidnaps, abuses, or harms a child.

There is one commenter out there who, along with refusing to learn punctuation and spelling, thinks that I sit around all day and insult everyone in the midwest and in "my community". If everyone in the midwest and my community fit into the above catagories, than perhaps you are right, bitter Kansas person, but since I know that isn't the case, shame on you for suggesting it! And if you do not like what I choose to do with my time, then go do something you enjoy with your time, dumdum! Or go back to the produce aisle from which you emerged.........

I also have another commenter out in cyberland who feels that it is necessary to keep bashing Emma Sullivan for her reluctant role in exposing Kansas Governer Brownback's twittergate moment to the world. It does not matter how rude or polite Miss Sullivan was at the time it happened. Unless she was addressing the entire crowd, she was not representing her school. That accusation is simply false, and the person who keeps wanting me to post that only wants to be hurtful. Miss Sullivan may be the biggest, most stuck-up snob in the school, (she prolly isn't) but I find myself face to face with a much bigger issue in this incident, and that is censorship and privacy. Anyone who wants to focus on the individual involved rather than on the importance of the issue involved is a fool. Seriously. From Richard Nixon and Watergate to Joseph Stalin to Mao Zedong, the results of telling citizens what they can and cannot say to their friends have always been dangerous. And Miss Sullivan is not the one who hung the principal of her school out to dry, in terms of email responses and threats. That was Brownback. His public apology to Miss Sullivan was politically the best move he could make in that situation, and Dr. Krawitz would have been well advised to do the same.

To my "gentletrolls", one more thing I would say to you is this, you already know I bust on Republican politicians, Christian fundies, murderers, child molesters, and other assorted criminals. What makes you so upset to see them catagorized as such? If you wish to see such individuals cast in a better light, I'm sure Rush Limbaugh has a blog. And if you wish to defend these people, why do it anonymously?

Twittergate Fallout Because Brownback Sucks

It seems that Emma Sullivan, the young lady who tweeted late last month, while on a field trip with her school, that Brownback sucks, has picked up a few critics as well as many, many supporters. I am one of Emma's supporters, by the way. The only thing I think she could do differently the next time she states that Brownback sucks is to state why she thinks Brownback sucks, so that all of her nice eavesdroppers and gentle spies will understand why she opines in such a way.

There's an idea that has been expressed via comments to this blog from posters in this part of the country that Emma Sullivan is somehow responsible for the reactions that the principal of her school, Karl R. Krawtiz, has gotton from the general public since the story aired in the media. That's simply error. Miss Sullivan did not tweet the nation; she only tweeted her friends. While it's true that tweets are internet propoganda, viewable by anyone, the tweet in question would not have been viewed by anyone except the intended viewer if Brownback's office had not eavesdropped. So; rather than blame Miss Sullivan, toward which a few Kansas folk seem inclined, it seems to me that the blame for all of the negative reactions including death threats, (according to my commenters) aimed at Krawtiz, rests upon the governer's office. 

"Juli...the lesson Emma and you apparently haven't learned is this - social media has consequences. True enough, the person making the death threat is ultimately responsible. But what brought it to his attention? A post on the internet. More specifically, Emma's posting of her "ordeal" with Dr K. "She didn't think" when she originally posted about Brownback. She found out that gosh...somebody I didn't want noticing noticed this. Did she learn? Nope...even more twits about her "ordeal" of "being yelled at for an hour". Again, I am sure there was no literary embellishment on her part (I say as I roll my eyes). "She didn't think" in the capitol, and after noticing her 60 followers increased to 1,000, I guess "she didn't think" that critical postings about Dr K would get the attention of some nutcase. Sounds to me like she should learn to think before she twits. I don't think she has though."

That's a comment I got about this. First of all, I do not think that anyone did anything to deserve a death threat, so I sincerely hope that no more threats are made to anyone. Second, an eighteen year old has not had as much experience with social media or any kind of media as someone who is Brownback's age, or the ages of those who work for him. I expect more from Brownback and his staff. If Brownback's henchmen did not know that this is a first amendment issue, shame on them. It should be no surprise that when an elected official steps on the rights of a citizen, even if the citizen and said elected official do not agree, any attempt to rob a person of his or her rights is very likely to get heralded by the media. It's happened before. It will happen again. Blaming an eighteen year old is unfair. I think Brownback and his staff should take responsibility for the threats to Krawitz and I think that other people should stop holding Emma Sullivan responsible. Third, eavesdropping is rude. Lots of people have posted in lots of places that Emma Sullivan needs to learn manners; well........so does Governer Brownback.

Of course, there are even more disturbing questions that may have to be answered in the future about Brownback and his merry band of eavesdroppers. This time, it was only tweets of a teenager that were snooped at, but whose communiques will it be next time? How many ethics does this governer violate in a day's time? How does he manipulate the information he gets and who does he manipulate with this information? And......why is he doing it? Does it help him govern the state?

Perhaps, if Emma wanted to be gracious, she might call one of the local news stations and request that a very quick statement be made requesting that anyone who has made threats to Karl Krawitz cease and desist.

Brownback Still Sucks And Leaves Krawitz Holding Bag

I have gotton lots of hits indicating searches for a picture of Karl R. Krawitz, and searches for a possible public apology to the Shawnee Mission East senior, Emma Sullivan, for attempting to force her to write an apology for tweeting "Brownback sucks" to her friends at a statehouse field trip in Topeka. Krawitz is the principal of Shawnee Mission East, and apparantly a local stooge of republican politicians. Initially, Miss Sullivan had intended to go ahead and write the apology, but has since changed her mind. Then, in a very political turn of events, Governer Brownback apologised to Miss Sullivan, stating that his staff had overreacted. Considering the fact that almost every publication in the nation had run the story, this was politically savvy of him.

I perused all available information to find out if Karl R. Krawitz has any intentions of apologising to his student for bullying her and humiliating her in front of her peers, but did not find much about him at all. What I did find was the website for Shawnee Mission East, where the incident is not mentioned. And...while I suppose one could email Mr. Karl Marx Krawitz, (another "Krawtiz" search) a couple of other bloggers and posters had a better idea. On the school website is a link for the reporting of bullying incidents, and I clicked on that and wrote my concerns about school administrators who bully students over politcal issues, depriving them of their constitutional rights. If you wish to do the same, just click on the link to Shawnee Mission East, provided above.

The last item I wanted to cover in this post is Karl R. Krawitz's picture, something for which lots of people have searched today. All I could find was a thumbnail, which I will include. I absolutely look forward to his public apology to Emma Sullivan, for bullying her concerning matters political and pressuring her to write a letter she did not need to write, and his public apology to the student body at Shawnee Mission East, for setting such a terrible example. Now that Browncrack has apologised, Krawitz is left holding the bag.

                                                                          Karl R. Krawitz