Human Endeavors

I have been really busy with the John Hall Campaign and have not been able to read much that has been posted around the blogosphere. Yesterday I put up a post about the gay bashing after reading Matt Stoller. Today I saw that Matt posted a follow up.

LifeBEAT canceled its concert, blaming activists on the internet for fomenting violence. You know, the activists asking LifeBEAT not to promote artists who call for the murder of gays and lesbians.

Wankers. But they heard our message because we forced them to. There's another piece here, and that's that this activism came mostly from progressive African-American gay bloggers. The blogosphere is not a top-down system, it's more of a pond with ripples that go outward when there's concentrated energy.

I am glad that the concert was cancelled and I give Matt a lot of credit for bringing this information to light. It reminds me of what Digby wrote yesterday:

The blogosphere is a kind of organism. To the extent there's a hierarchy, it's not manufactured, it's organic, and there is no recognized leadership --- there's readership. This idea of a Stalinist comintern is a misunderstanding of epic proportions. The blogosphere has the most open distribution of power of any human endeavor I've ever participated in.

I just wanted to add, that the blogosphere has introduced me to such a rich assortment of people. I have the highest respect for the bloggers who take the time to put together posts to help keep us informed. Some bloggers bear the cost of certain selections and make a point of posting them. [You know who you are.] But beyond that there are bloggers who tell stories, so creatively written, each in their own genre. I am really not a good writer, I struggle to find the appropriate words, but I am learning from the blogosphere.