Ya Know... Over My Years Here... I've Had Several PM's And/Or Responses... Asking Me...

[bigtree]

56. reading your post while visiting my own on this thread

. . . I never really completed any extensive schooling, and over the decade, or so, writing on this board, I've actually honed and developed my writing skills. I used to write letters to the editor at WaPo and got published about a dozen times. I basically learned to write politically from the countless rejects.

I know, from my own experience, that writing and advocating well, and with consistency on these issues isn't beyond most anyone here. In fact, having absolutely no ambition to write full articles, I was inspired enough by others here to develop my own craft. I wrote and self-published my first book at the very same time I was battling politics out on these pages; inspired and informed by the dialog.

That's why I find observations like your own - that articulate writers MUST be part of something organized and nefarious - as insulting as it is unbelievable. It's not surprising to me to find folks who are actually willing and take the time to engage in discussion here able and articulate in their expressions.

I'm not surprised to find this kind of belief here, though, as the vast majority of the work and research I sometimes spend hours on and include in most of the free-standing material I bother to write and post here is usually ignored or dismissed in favor of promoting and celebrating self-important snark and fractured expressions of angst or outrage.