Dear Sue,
How're things going, today? I was sorry to hear of Ana's passing. My family had two dogs (though not at the same time) and when each passed, the house was certainly a very very sad for a very long time.
I'd like to switch gears, however. I hope that's OK.
I am curious about your take on the current Wendy Bell situation. I'd like to focus on this tweet from State Representative Summer Lee:
Pittsburgh, the radio host everyone is retweeting and giving attentive is awful, of course, but they're also playing a role trying to get a 1st class ticket to a bigger hate platform. Don't pay for her ticket.
— Summer Lee (@SummerForPA) September 1, 2020
Even though I am one of the people actively commenting on Wendy Bell's abhorrent political performance art, I think Rep. Lee is making a valid point. I'm not sure the tweet had much effect as the local anti-Wendy outcry has only gotten louder since.
The weird thing (for me and my fragile blogger ego, at least) is that that outcry has little to do with my running commentary on Ms. Bell. I'm spending most of my time fact-checking her on her misstatements regarding COVID-19 and how she's putting the public at greater risk each time she spreads an untruth and the recent outcry is about how she's posted her solution to protestors protesting Confederate monuments: Shoot them. Shoot them all.
I didn't spend much time with that because there's nothing to fact check. Don't get me wrong, it's a hideous idea, both politically and morally, but it's not a misstatement of fact like this:
[T]he CDC says that 94% of people who we think died of COVID did not die from COVID but died and happened to have it at the same time.
But at some point all this twitter yelling has to be raising Wendy's profile someplace, somehow. If she were fired and "failed upward" to a more prominent post outside of the Pittsburgh market, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? The local atmosphere might be a little more rational but it simply moves teh crazie nationwide.
I honestly don't have a good response to Rep. Lee except to say that my blog posts are a necessary record of Wendy Bell's coronavirus statements and that it's my belief that the more people believe her, the greater the public health is at risk. Silence on this is not an option.
Your thoughts?
With respect
David
