It's Time to Step Away from the Accusations, AoA

I was once a fairly regular commentor at AoA. Much of what they had to say resonated with me, and reading the stories of all of these parents who had experiences similar to mine was both troubling and comforting; troubling in that there were so many like mine, and comforting that there was a place where I could discuss these experiences without snark or ridicule from those who erroneously claim to be science based. Back when my son was having some very serious health and behavior issues, Kim and others over at AoA were very kind and understanding and sent me personal emails of comfort and advice, something for which I have nothing but admiration, respect, and gratitude.

However, several months ago, several of the people over at AoA made some pretty disturbing comments, leaving the address, etc. of the loathesome and disgusting Orac in and attempt to get him fired for his blogging activities. It doesn't matter how much you despise that horrendous little scum-bag, no one deserves that. Not even him. I felt it was my duty to tell them, "Hey, this is wrong." I even wrote about it in an earlier post (Sorry, I would link, but I have discovered that Blogger and IE9 are not very friendly...I will likely edit this post later).

Then, today, I read JB Handley's post about Sullivan/Bonnie Offit.

For the longest time, I had the utmost respect for JB. I admired his tenacity and the way he never held anything back. I loved the humor in his posts, and laughed heartily as he gave certain egomaniacal douchebags the ridicule they deserved. But this article today?

I begin to wonder if JB's detractors may be correct in some respects. The article today claims that Sullivan is Bonnie Offit. Reading this article left me feeling quite depressed, especially seeing such paranoia and jumping at shadows as I saw there. It saddened me to see this from someone I once had a great deal of respect for.

To me, this is nothing but a smear campaign against Sullivan. While Sullivan and I have only had a few exchanges, they were always respectful and informative, and I feel this was a bit undeserved.

So, AoA, it's time to step back from the baseless accusations. I still consider many of you friends, but I cannot condone what you've done today. I'm sorry, but you've lost a reader.

To the Family and Friends of FreeSpeaker

Yesterday, I was quite shocked to learn of the passing of one of the people that many of us have had encounters with; some friendly, many not so friendly. The man known as FreeSpeaker died on Monday, though I do not know the cause. I was unaware that he had any health problems, so his passing seems to be surprisingly sudden.

I do not want to go into too much depth about our differences of opinion. I do not agree with much of what he had to say, and I certainly don't agree with the way he said it. However, I can say that he was passionate about his beliefs, though I feel he was misguided. He truly believed he was doing what was best, and such passion I can certainly respect, even admire. Despite our differences, he was a human being, and he deserves to be treated as such. Such respect is sadly lacking on all sides of our little debate.

If Freespeaker's family ever gets the chance to read this, then please accept my deepest and most sincere sympathies. If his death was as unexpected as I think it was, then I hope that my well wishes will help you through this trying time.

Farewell Freespeaker. Good journey.