It’s never personal
Wendell Peters, Floyd County Circuit clerk, couldn’t hide his displeasure when I showed up Tuesday to report on the latest court session.
When I approached Peters to pick up a copy of the court docket, he looked with disdain and asked: "Are you sure you can accept this from a Republican?"
"Of course," I said. "I deal with Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Independents and even a Socialist or two."
Peters wasn’t amused. He was upset over that Capitol Hill Blue column that was highly critical of the Republican Party in Washington.
"I was offended by it," he said. "I hope you weren’t talking about present company."
I wasn’t, of course. The column was aimed at the President and Republicans in Congress. The last time I checked, the Constitutional officers of Floyd County weren’t part of that group.
But someone with a copy machine used up a toner cartridge or two copyed the column and distributed it around the courthouse, the town hall and other places. One was stuffed in the door of The Floyd Press. Another was found in the parking lot of the courthouse. Town Manager Mike Maslaney said one was stuffed in his Sunday Roanoke Times.
Too bad the person with the copy machine didn’t take the time to copy one of my many columns which said even worse things about Democrats and pass it around too. Guess they weren’t interested in balance.
Peters took my comments personally. He shouldn’t. What I do is never personal. My problem with the Republicans is focused at those in Washington who, I feel, have abandoned the GOP principles of a small, less-intrusive, government. It was the Congress and the President who gave us the USA Patriot Act, a rights-robbing piece of legislation that takes away many of the freedoms that used to be part of the foundation of this nation.
The folks in Washington are professional politicians. Most local officials are not. They are true citizen officials who actually try to help those they serve. Wendell Peters is a good clerk. Shannon Zeman is a good sheriff. New Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Shortt is living up to voter expectations and delivering on her campaign promises. I’ve had great experiences dealing with county offices, both as a journalist and as a taxpayer and resident of Floyd County.
The same is true with Citizens Telephone. All of my customer service experiences with Citizens have been great. The cooperative’s DSL service is far more reliable than the Verizon service we had in Northern Virginia. I let the company use, without charge, one of my professional video cameras to shoot football games this past season.
So I was surprised recently to hear that some at Citizens felt I had a personal grudge against the company or someone who worked with it. I don’t use this site to pursue personal agendas or grudges. I reported what I did because enough employees of the company came forward with concerns that I felt should be part of the public discussion. Citizens is a publicly-owned telephone cooperative. We, the public, own it and we deserve to know if the company is in trouble.
So let’s stop trying to make this personal. It’s not. Let’s stop the anonymous notes on the door, the invective-filled no-name emails or the nasty, anonymous phone calls left on voice mail. If you have a problem with me, my address is 201 East Main Street, Suite 6, Floyd, VA. I’m there six days a week. Have the courage to walk in the door and discuss your concerns with me in person. Wendell Peters had the common deceney to express his concerns to my face. Others should as well.
It’s message, not messenger.
When 70% of the population recognizes that there is a problem, then we should not squander our time with trivia about who’s punctuation or couth may be out of the mainstream. Many people feign offense at the truth to avoid the discussion of the subject.
The old story about treating the mule with love and respect; but first you have to get his attention- well it applies to the public as well.
We are shortlived people, we have squandered the time we have on this earth. The sooner we recognize the complexity of the adage “follow the money” the better we will comprehend problems in decision making both corporate and government; then I think we’ll be better off.
Let’s contribute to this process, have faith that the truth will set us free. We have far more in common than the powers would have us believe, let’s overlook the small stuff and focus on the big!
When I started reading Capitol Hill Blue in the late 1990′s–living in Roanoke, VA, one county away from Floyd and unaware that apparently Doug Thompson had worked with my father many years before at the Roanoke Times–I was a diehard Republican on every issue except the environment, and I was immediately attracted to CHB because of the anti-Clinton articles.
I was still a diehard Republican when Bush came into office, but over time I not only quit supporting Bush, I fell out with the Republican party entirely. Much of this was due to Bush’s behavior, and much was due to educating myself about what was really happening in Washington, and the consequences both here and abroad from those actions. And part of that education came from Doug Thompson and Capitol Hill Blue.
I wonder, as that former Republican who remembers being extremely uncomfortable in the initial stages of my turning against the D.C. GOP, if the folks doing the smearing and anonymous copying are themselves trying to fight personal doubts in an extremeist way. Thinking is dangerous to a zealot.
I read it on the CHB site before it was distributed in town, and saved it because of its no BS honesty, but I knew it wasn’t written for a local audience or about local officials. I think the original title is what likely hit the nerve. Now you know how Jeremiah Wright feels.
Being silenced for criticizing our government is like being pressured into wearing American flag pin or saying God Bless America after every speech, things you’d find in a dictatorship and shouldn’t find in a democracy. Most people who speak harshly or protest bad government policies do so because they want them righted, because they care about the everyday people who suffer because of them.
I have watched the events of the past two weeks unfold with increasing sadness. Have we become so intolerant of other views that we feel the need to try and destroy someone whose only crimes are raising questions that we all should be asking? I remember a poster from the 70s that showed a turtle with a long neck straining forward. It read: “Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” Complacency is dangerous and we must, as vigilant citizens, question those whose job is to serve the public, be it county government, town council or a publicly-owned telephone utility.
I too was offended by the language Mr. Thompson used in his writings about Republicans but I am more offended by those who have tried to destroy him through threats, anonymous attacks and innuendo. He performs a service to the community by questioning the status quo. We should thank him for caring.
Wow. When I was straightening the media shelves in the Winter Sun lobby yesterday, I found the print out of your “anti” republican article. Two copies. I didn’t read the whole thing…but I thought, this is weird. It isn’t like Doug to print stuff and leave it here. I meant to ask you about it. Now I know to get rid of it…not that it’s wrong…but that you didn’t put it there.
Nothing threatens more than the truth. It boggles my mind that in these days and times people still attach great importance on being either a demorcrat or republican….and that some person would go to such great lengths to expose one man’s opinion.
I have never met Doug Thompson. I do not know him nor do I know his family. I have never been in his studio, although I hope to visit the next time my husband and I are in Floyd. I also have never read Capitol Hill Blue. I have no interest in political news.
I do however have many friends in Floyd and read Blue Ridge Muse at their recommendation. What I read here tells me that Doug Thompson is a man who loves his wife, loves life and loves his home. I image the Thompsons could have moved anywhere when they retired but chose to return to the Blue Ridge Mountains. As a fellow traveler who also came home to the Blue Ridge I can understand how the mountains brought him home.
My impression of the man comes from that I see of his actions, not the hysteria of a few who might have been offended because he had an opinion they didn’t like.
When my husband and I attend charity auctions in Floyd we often see Mr. Thompson’s photography donated to those auctions. We own two of his beautiful photographs, both purchased at auctions in Floyd.
We have a friend on the Floyd County rescue squad who tells me Mr. Thompson donates web hosting space to the squad. Another friend tells me he donated an expensive video camera and editing deck to Floyd County High School for use in their “living history” project. Last week’s Floyd Press reported that the board of supervisors reappointed him as the county’s representative on the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program advisory board. His wife, I am told, volunteers at Angels in the Attic.
Yet some who place comments here call him the “spawn of the devil” and a “Godless heathen.” These impressions are contrary to the man I see.
So he wrote a column on a web site that criticizes Republicans. So what? I am a Republican but I am not offended. America was founded on the right to have differing opinions. I may not agree with Mr. Thompson’s opinion on Republicans but I support his right to have such opinions and to express them.
What I do not support are the underhanded attempts to disrupt his life with anonymous threats and smear campaigns.
I wonder: Has anyone taken him up on his offer to talk to him about their concerns? Did any of the people who copied his writings and passed those copies around ask him about what he wrote? Did any of those who went crying to the editor of The Floyd Press come to him to make their complaints?
I am willing to bet the answer to all the above questions is a resounding “no!” If those are the answers, then they speak volumes about the lack of character of those who question Mr. Thompson’s character.
I do know Doug and I know his lovely wife through her involvement with Angels in the Attic.
They are good people who love this county. It is too bad that some of the more narrow-minded among us can’t see beyond their blinders.
It’s time to set the record straight about Doug Thompson and Capitol Hill Blue. I know what happened during those infamous incidents in 2003 and 2005 because I interned for Doug while attending college at George Mason University in 2002 and 2003 and know the people really responsible for the problems for which he accepted blame.
One was a con artist who fooled a lot of people on Capitol Hill by claiming to be a government contractor whose clients included the CIA. He became an advisor to several Congressional offices and two House committees. Doug met him while working on Capitol Hill and was fooled just like others. When that person was revealed as a fraud, Doug wrote a column admitting he had been had.
Doug is a good man who puts a tremendous amount of trust in people until they let him down. Even when that happens he still forgives and lets them try to move on. Two people involved with Capitol Hill Blue from 1998 until 2005 played fast and loose with the facts and devloped sources that were not fully vetted. One of them developed a so-called "source" who claimed to be a former aide to Presidents Nixon and Reagan. She provided quotes from this source to Doug and other writers at Capitol Hill Blue. We all trusted her. We got burned. Another lifted sections from other publications and provided it as "research" for stories that all of us wrote.
Doug, however, took the full blame and responsibility for what happened. He was the publisher of Capitol Hill Blue and he felt the fault was his for not seeing through the sham. We urged him to publicly out the real sources of the problem. He said no, that he would not ruin someone who might have learned their lesson and still have a career ahead of them.
Doug allowed friends who wrote for other mainstream publications to write for Capitol Hill Blue under assumed names. It is a common practice in Washington. Many big time writers moonlight for other publications and use different names. Joe Klein at Time Magazine is one. When Capitol Hill Blue came under fire for the practice, Doug didn’t hide or make excuses or even say, as he could have, that others do it. He said it was wrong and stopped the practice.
Doug Thompson has taken a lot of heat over the years for situations that were not of his making. He did so because he blames himself when someone he trusted violated that trust. It is his greatest strength and biggest failing.
I’ve married and moved from Washington but I still read Capitol Hill Blue and follow Doug’s writings. Once again, I see him come under fire because of his loyalty to others. It is so sad that those who do not really know this man choose to judge him with so little knowledge.
Doug
I try to catch your blogs daily – although I don’t always agree with your line of thinking (but frequently do), you always make a clear case for your views and give me something to think about. Maybe that’s the problem, some folks don’t want to think.
Of all the “rights” we US citizens lay claim to, Freedom of Speech is the hardest to live with, but it’s is also what sets us apart from many of people around the world. So to all those out there that are trying so hard to silence anyone that says (or prints) things you don’t agree with (or who have the courage to speak up about issues that no one else will talk about) – it’s time you went back to Civics class! Study the Constitution again (there’s more to it than the right to own and carry guns) – be patriotic – support Freedom of Speech!!
Keep up the good work Doug – my brain needs the exercise.
On average, national polls show Bush’s approval rating to be 30.2 percent so 70 percent of those polled – in a number of polls — disapprove of the job he’s doing. Congress fares even worse with an average approval rating of 18.7 percent and only 15.6 percent of the people think the country is headed in the right direction.
Doug, your columns express your view of the world around us and seem to reflect the concerns of the majority. Those with minority views clearly have the right to disagree. You give them the opportunity to do so, but it appears most of your detractors are too cowardly to stand up publicly do so. Or perhaps they are upset with the facts.
John Adams once said “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes , our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence.”
I don’t live in Floyd and am not a Citizens Telephone customer so have no frame of reference for those battles. I am, however, an American and I’m actively working to rid this nation of Bush and Cheney and so many others whose lies and arrogance and, in too many cases, sheer stupidity continue to take their toll on my country’s well-being. Bush and his administration will be gone in 242 days, 13 hours and 56 minutes — not a second too soon.
Doug,
You must be doing something right if you’re stirring up so much fuss! I agree that Wendell is a nice guy and a fine Clerk. Like more and more folks these days, I don’t affiliate with a political party and I vote my conscience. I believe in unifying people and political parties are designed from the get-go to divide us.
It is disturbing although not surprising that there are some folks sneaking around like vermin attempting to discredit you and/or interrupt your livelihood. The fact that they don’t understand the bigger picture of who you are and what you’re about further testifies to their cockroach-level intellect and equally loathesome ethical values. If they had any self respect at all, they would step into the light and at least own up to their own words and actions.
It’s unfortunate but true that the vast majority of national-level politicians are cut from the same cloth. Those with higher ethical and moral values have a more difficult road to travel if they want to raise enough money to get that far. Most of the entities that are capable of financing today’s nine-figure (eventually ten-figure I’m sure) campaign bills will at some point ask them to compromise those values. Add to this the fact that the game is rigged so third parties don’t have a chance at all and it’s hard keep a positive attitude about our system.
We can only hope that someone will come along that can buck this trend (and that we’ll have the good sense to vote for them). Then we would have to clean up the legislature! The odds are incredibly out of balance, but the change has to start somewhere, doesn’t it?