On Anonymity
A number of people, including the target of the piece, Tammy Lacey, took issue with the fact that a contributor to this blog posted anonymously about Tammy Lacey in a piece about her comments toward the OPI Superintendent, Elsie Arntzen.
In short: Get over it.
Here’s something from the first iteration of Electric City Weblog after the Tribune outed me after a piece I wrote gained some public traction:
Anonymity gives one the freedom to vent and when I started a couple years ago, blowing off steam over news events was a primary reason to write here. I can appreciate those who suggest anonymous commenting is not useful in our political process, but I disagree. Believe it or not, there are those in the public and private sector who are petty enough to hold a person’s opinions against him or her. Further, anonymous political chatter has a long history in our culture. In fact, the famous “Common Sense” was originally anonymous.
Ask yourself why a government official would be so concerned about who wrote some ideas, rather than about the ideas themselves? Why does it matter who wrote them? Could it be that government power might be used against the author (or at least the long remembered will to use it against the author)?
Whenever I have had this discussion with people in power, guess what they say?
“Oh, we would never do that.” As though government employees, or in this case, educators, are somehow unique and not subject to the same petty vanities and prejudices that the rest of human beings struggle with.
Some people prefer to write anonymously. It’s perfectly legal. It’s not chicken-sh*t, it’s not a cheap shot, it’s not bad form. It’s legitimate, and there are people who prefer to write that way.
My advice to public officials now that there’s a ‘new blog in town,’ just get over it and either contend with the ideas or ignore them. (Of course, if we have our way, we can eliminate the latter as a viable choice!)
And remember, too, you get to come at us anonymously. All we require is an email address and, in this day of gmail, those aren’t too hard to come by.
