Our forum is taking on the look of a shoot from the hip, anything goes, forum bent on revenge. There are some that hate the "delete" button the moderator uses to take control of the forum.They would love a free -for-all format. They can't understand that our reporters have feelings, and they are now fighting back instead of being used as a pin cushion. As I said before, the Advocate can exclusively feature conservative journalists, and I wouldn't whine at all and because I have other sources. A good example of that was performed by a poster I don’t even like, rollingstone, when he pointed out line by line, section by section of the United States Constitution of how secession, slavery, and Nullification were all unconstitutional but Gafftop has yet to respond. Few posters ever own up to their mistakes.
Think about it,it's only the so-called conservatives complaining about the content of the newspaper but that's because they are used to filtered media. I don't think the Advocate has a left or right wing bias and I think they go the extra mile to stay that way. That's just my opinion.
In a post to BigJ, I stated, “I don't think Gheni is being picked on, but her topics are... Gheni will be a good reporter one day, but the Victoria forum readers are generally in their fifties or older. It's that crowd that she is not appealing to and ones that don't like in -your- face controversial subjects. That might work in Houston, but it won't work with demographics of Victoria" but then I read GetSmart's opinion blog, and I can see where a lot of people need some lessons on race relations. They are seriously lacking basic understanding. You cannot gripe about perceived inequalities of today without knowing how we got there in the first place. You just can't put Bull Connor and his fire hoses and the discriminatory poll tax in a well-hidden corner and expect to gripe about affirmative action. If it wasn't for the groups made up of minorities, would we be talking about voter's rights or the voter ID card? I was in my late teens and we still had separate drinking fountains and segregated schools. Can you believe that we are in the 21st Century, and a church is voting on whether to accept interracial couples? The Elks Club et al, nepotism, and other means were accepted practices of advancement under the guise of networking. The ignorant call, some devoted months to honor the achievements of Hispanics and blacks racism saying if there was a dedicated month for Caucasians minorities would squawk. That's where the problem lies, in the first place and that just an opinion without basis and the minorities grew up without any knowledge of their ancestor's accomplishments because the emphasis wasn't there. I don’t think Hispanics or blacks called for the special months and I don’t think they would mind if they were eliminated.I believe it was woofwoof who posted complaining about the black month and wanting equal time for the white race. That would take a lot of months, since they are about 125 ethnicities in the white race. When I posted an article featuring a Czech Month, he never responded. I believed if more people apologized when they were wrong or admitted their error, it would go a long way in self-policing. The United States inaugurated the first black president on January 20, 2009, and we don't have currently have a black senator. GetSmart and his small crowd would lose their “victim" case in front of an impartial jury who had access to the facts.
Right now, we are rehashing a war that was ended 146 years ago. I happen to think that in the talks between the southern states and their counterparts, the topic of slavery was very much at the forefront. Whether the majority of the southern soldiers owned any slaves or had an opinion on it doesn't matter to me. I am only interested in the written documents.
The confederate flag was not only used by the KKK because It's currently being used by other racist groups The racist groups are hijacking that flag, but they know they are inflaming their targets. I saw where David Duke was arrested and deported from Germany the other day, in the backdrop was a confederate flag. The same people who denounce American Muslims for not being more vocal about radical Islamic terrorist are not doing the same when it comes to American terrorist hijacking the confederate flag.It's all about perception.
In the six years, that I have been part of the online forum, I have stayed away from racial issues because the issue is too sensitive, and my words may be taking out a context. Like several posters, I have an extensive comment history report and that in that report; I would challenge any one to find anything that could be defined as being racist. I'm rethinking my former stance because I can't just sit idly by while ignorant people are trying to rewrite history to promote their agenda. There's not a lot I can do. I can only offer my opinion but when combined with others; we can take the sting out of the self-serving hypotheticals that are substituting for fact.