If you have a problem with me, a politician who is looked at as a leader in my district and at the state level, trying to be positive and show a positive side of politics to my readers, that’s honestly not my problem- it’s yours. And I don’t want to feed into it. I have tried to take the high road here and so far, I think I have done well to talk about the solutions I am working on.
Bernice Paglia had some comments about my page recently on her blog, Plaintalker: “Also the writer of the blog notes receiving a lot of comments, but we notice none are published. So far, Plaintalker has published all comments, naughty or nice.” I shouldn’t have to answer to Bernice or anyone else about my abilities to speak, write or use common sense. I have a vision for this blog that includes responsible, positive discussion and solutions. I never promised readers that I would post all of their comments, especially when a few are anonymous, negative and off topic. For the many that have been none of those things, I believe I have the option of responding directly to those people or writing on their questions at a later time.
If we’re talking about what we don’t see on each other’s blogs, I haven’t seen Plaintalker offer any solutions. That’s because that’s not her style of reporting and that’s not what her blog is about. Her blog is very different from mine for many reasons and I believe we both have the right to keep our blogs the way we decide to.
Blogs are very different than newspapers and I think we should all remember that. You know, I have been interviewed by many, many reporters and I have only seen this level of negativity on these local blogs. I believe that no matter how the news comes out, people will always see through those who try to make people feel like they are on top of the issues, like they know something other people don’t know. I decided to do a blog because the ones that I read weren’t always talking about facts. Sometimes they got it right, and sometimes they got it half right, and other times they were allowed to put a rumor or a question out as though it were real news.
I have an advantage that I think makes my blog different: I’m a politician, and sometimes I’m privy to facts very early on that my readers might not know about. I wanted to start this blog as a place where I could, as quickly as possible, make sure that this information gets out to the people. I think this is a good model because normally the news has to travel through the reporter to the people, and that’s where the people sometimes suffer. Often, either they don’t get the facts because of the reporter’s personal bias or because the politicians didn’t trust the reporters to get the facts to the people without spinning them. Technology is helping people hear directly from the sources of news and I think this is a good thing, one that I want to embrace and I hope my readers appreciate. I have to think that part of the reason that I am being attacked for this blog is because the level of direct access to facts that I can provide to my readers scares people who are used to being the middlemen.
I would challenge anyone to debate me on the real issues that affect Plainfield, my district or even the state and our country. I have my own opinions and no one needs to be there to tell me what to say. I recently taped an interview for Channel 9 in which I debated a Republican colleague on the issue of the Speaker’s affordable housing bill. I felt I said what I wanted to say about it, and anyone who watched the interview could tell you there was no one in my ear- no one writing my arguments for me. I find it offensive that I should even have to argue this after everything I have accomplished and worked for. I don’t think it speaks well of those who accuse me of not being able to write.
I want this to be a place where I can give readers all the information that I can give, both to inform readers’ opinions and to back up my own. On that note, I’ve included a scan of the actual letter from Commissioner Howard’s office which helps give some background to the issues about Muhlenberg that I’ve been discussing in my previous few posts.
It’s things like this that I really hope to include as often as possible on my blog.
Of course, there are things as a politician that I find out that I can’t immediately alert people about, with good reason. Take, for instance, some recent rumors going around that I knew about the Muhlenberg closing long before the general public and held on to that information for some type of political gain. The truth is that when those of us present at the meeting with the State and Solaris reached an agreement for a $4.5 million advance on charity care funding to keep the hospital open for another six months, those present also agreed not to talk about what was going on publically to avoid scaring off potential buyers- something we are still trying to accomplish. Even still, I decided to come forward when two separate, major developers approached me to say that they didn’t feel Solaris was serious about finding a legitimate buyer. I find the whole accusation that this is something that I hid very odd because of how many times and for how long I have been trying to convince the public of the seriousness of the situation at Muhlenberg. It was at the City Council meeting on the first of this year that I publically said the situation was at crisis levels, and the literature and mailings that have come out of my office have addresses the problems at Muhlenberg for at least that long. In an effort to back up everything that I’m telling you here, I would add that Mr. John McGee, CEO for Solaris, can vouch for the facts as I’ve described them here.
I sincerely hope that this is the last time I have to use this blog for anything other than talk about real issues, and I hope that those people interested in getting the facts directly can at least appreciate what I am trying to do here.
1 comment:
That's write Jerry. You the man!
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