Probably the most surprising thing about writing for Strollerderby was when I found out that, in some cases, the people I wrote about were reading, and sometimes commenting on, my posts about them. Honestly, it never occurred to me that these figures in the news would care about - or even find out about - whatever snarky observations I had to make about their situations.
It has been really interesting this past week, following the debates on two of my posts, as relatives and friends of the posts' subjects jumped in to argue opposite points of view. "Teen Fakes Pregnancy," is a post about a high school student, Danica Esau, who pretended to be pregnant to raise awareness about the plight of pregnant teens. Classmates of Danica's were quick to post comments accusing her of staging the pregnancy just for the attention; one reader claimed, "she doesn't care about pregnant teens, and their unborn children she believes that they should all be aborted." Another, obviously adult reader (and acquaintance, at the very least, of Danica's) jumped to her defense, explaining, "She was asked to this by an organization and to write about it for a study . . . She does care about pregnant teens."
But the more uncomfortable debate accompanied the post, "Is Your Surgeon An Addict?", which talked about confidential rehab programs for drug and alcohol-addicted doctors. In the comment section, two readers - who identified one another as the wife of one of the addicted doctors named in the post and the sister of a patient of that doctor, who had recently died due (the family claimed) to his malpractice - exchanged hostile accusations. The former called the latter and her supporters, "all truly evil and incredibly unhappy people." The sister responded, "If you believe everything [the doctor] says, that is expected, I guess . . . You ignore evidence . . . not accusations, evidence."
I guess it's healthy that people embroiled in these kind of controversial situations have sounding boards where they can safely vent, with no risk of an argument escalating into violence. And it certainly reminds me that there are real people at the center of the endless amount of blog postings I write, and might help to increase sensitivity and awareness on the part of all bloggers and commenters.
One reader of the doctor post made an interesting point: "The truth is very easy to see in these forums, and that is what matters." I'm not sure if truth is revealed, but certainly the complexity of the situations is made abundantly clear, and how passionately people are invested in them.
