Sunday, June 18, 2006

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga Owes Me An Apology

Claire Guthrie Gastanaga has posted her random thoughts on this weekend's bloggers conference in Charlottesville.

Her first random thought was not very well thought out. Or at the very least not very well researched.
I am disappointed that the Virginia political blogosphere has allowed egos, partisan bickering and polarization to divide bloggers into those who attended the "liberal" Sorenson conference (strange denomination given keynotes by McDonnell and Bolling, but it is true that conservative bloggers were outnumbered) and those who will attend a "conservative" bloggers conference in Collinsville in August.
She continues with;
...Perhaps we should all go to Collinsville to seek to rebuild communications across the silly battle lines drawn this summer, that is, if those of us who participated in this weekend's meeting are "allowed" to attend the other.
This is highly offensive to me. When I first decided to do this, the very first person I went to for help was Barnie Day. Who wants to be the first to jump up and call Barnie a Conservative? Jim Gilmore, would you like to vouch for his credentials as a conservative? How about you, George Allen? No, I don't think you will find many that will. Hell, he used to give me nightmares when he was in the House of Delegates, but much more importantly,I've always admired his writing. He is a good friend today. I'm having lunch with him tomorrow, actually.

I have also made it a point in each and every reference to this conference to ask for input from the blogging community. Consequently, I have received numerous offers of help from all sides of the political spectrum, and even more suggestions.

In her post she says;
C'mon guys... Do we need to model our behavior on the traditional organizations that we all so often criticize? Wouldn't it be refreshing if we could come together despite egos and politics to engage each other as peers? We should try to do better.
OK, Claire, you have been given the means and more than ample opportunity. I posted a comment to Claire's post, since I knew it was moderated I felt it was safe to put my phone number in the comment asking her to please call me. That was around 7:00pm. It is now well past 10:30 and she has yet to ring my phone. Yet she has the temerity to state in her "apology" that
I look forward to talking with you, Alton, and to learning more about what you are planning.
Just before that oh, so sweet statement, she said;
Bottom line is that I'm just reflecting how this all "feels" to this one person who isn't in the inner blogocircle, hasn't been invited to the August meeting and who hasn't received any publicity about the event from any source.
I'm so sorry, Ms. Gastanaga, I didn't know I was supposed to fill you in personally on the event. But a simple search on blogger using the phrase "C'ville Too", which you had obviously learned somewhere, and the word "Sorensen" turns up this page. But let's suppose you had only searched on the much more common "C'ville" and "Sorensen", then in that case you get this page. You will notice that both will lead you quite quickly to my blog. If you felt slighted that I had not consulted you, then you should have gotten in touch with me.

Instead it looks to me like you are the one who has allowed ego and partisan bickering to invade your mind.

Once again, Ms. Gastanaga, I ask you to call me. You have the number.

UPDATE:
All is well now. Ms. Gastanaga and I have resolved our differences. See here. (link)

No comments: