OntheWilderSide

About those links (and other stuff)

On April 8th, Dona, Jim and Ty changed the template at this site. They explained that in “Message from Jim, Dona and Ty,” noting that — during the delays — they’d decided to post a video clip (Check out the video) and to do so they needed to switch templates. They switched and the “widget” wasn’t available so the video couldn’t be posted here. The switch also resulted in all links being lost, as they noted.

That Sunday, we managed to get ten links up (all community sites and Jess was largely responsible for that). We’d noted that it would be slow going. It turned out to be even slower than we’d thought. We’re all busy. We’d asked for input and we got it. Some e-mails were questioning and some were hurt. At the start of last week (which many e-mailers missed), C.I. added over thirty links. Those that did notice still had a few issues.

We think that’s a good thing. We think it’s great that you have a resource you utilize and enjoy, one you will gladly advocate for. We’re going to explain how this works briefly since it’s becoming a huge topic in e-mails.

A popular question was were we forgetting NOW? No. No, we weren’t.

We’re not linking to them. Some e-mails guessed it was because of the endorsement of Hillary Clinton. That is incorrect. NOW PAC can endorse whomever they want. (C.I. wants it noted that community member Martha complained about the endorsement to NOW and received a very nice reply from Kim Gandy — no surprise that it was a nice reply — where she explained how the choice was decided.) That includes, yes, that they can endorse a War Hawk (which they did).

We’re not linking to NOW. If you go to community sites, you’ll see no one has “pulled” their own link to NOW. So why won’t link to them here? We linked before due to a number of reasons including the strong calling out of the illegal war. Before Hillary got her endorsement, NOW decided to pull the button that had been on their website for years “PEACE IS A FEMINIST ISSUE.” With that gone, we have no desire to link to them. No one’s going to pull their own link but should others in the community switch templates and have to redo their links, you’ll see NOW won’t be added.

We shared our disgust on that choice in a print feature that tied it into “The Dove” (a song recorded by both Joan Baez and Judy Collins — “The dove has torn her wings . . .”) and reproduced NOW’s button with a tear in it.

We don’t know that NOW is backing off from the issue of war (we doubt it considering that Kim Gandy is president) but that button said something. After last week, when C.I. spoke to a group of “professional women,” it’s all the more important that organizations speaking to women note the war. (For more on the Thursday group, read Kat’s “You just never know.”) Ava and C.I. made a point to include (and defend) NOW in “Don Imus.” They remain strong advocates for the organization. The rest of us? Put the dove back up and we’ll put the link back up. Until then, don’t look for it at our site. (Ava and C.I.’s features are written by the two of them and they include whatever they want in them. A piece by written by all of us would have several calling for any link to NOW being stripped out due to the issue of the now-missing button.)

The Green Party has always been linked to here. But the e-mails since the template switch have noted that and wondered why we didn’t offer a Democratic Party link? Is anyone in the country unaware of the Democratic Party? C.I. links to Democratic Underground to give a Democratic voice and to the Green Party. We just link to the Green Party here. Jess is a Green. Always has been, probably always will be. When The Green Party link went up at The Common Ills (before Jess knew C.I.), he was thrilled. When we started our site, it was obvious we needed to include the link. That should answer the question.

If it doesn’t, turn on your chat & chews, pick up your daily paper (and sadly, pick up most of your independent print media as well). You’ll have no trouble finding mentions of Democrats and the Democratic Party. You won’t find Greens.

Whether we are Greens or not, we support the third party and think it’s more than required, if we’re a left site, that we note it. For instance, Jason West is running for re-election as mayor of New Paltz. Those who care about issues like equality should know his name. This Monday, Ralph Nader will be showing his support for West via a screening of the documentary An Unreasonable Man and by signing copies of his book The Seventeen Traditions. That’s Monday, six-thirty p.m. at the Rosendale Theater. (Nader will also be participating in a question and answer session.) On The Wilder Side, which is one of the five sites we still need to link to, has more information on that appearance in this post.

It’s also true that we offer Liberal Oasis as a link and that’s very much a Democratic site. Though Bill Scher may or may not remember this, before this site started, Jim exchanged several e-mails with him. It’ll always be linked for that reason and, were the some reason to call Scher out on something, Jim would probably argue for us to give Scher a pass. (And we’d respect that.)

Filed under: Anti-War, cynthia mckinney, democrat, Green Party Websites, international politics, media, presidential race, social & economic justice, third party, video Tagged: | a place called hope, Debates, democrat, Uncategorized