A to Z Challenge Reflections Post
This blog was born in an email conversation about the creator of the A to Z Challenge. Specifically, his politics. After the election he had said some offensive things, and it was hard to justify participating in the Challenge.
What's the right thing to do? Calling for a boycott wouldn't help. The creator of the Challenge wasn't talking politics at all for April. A boycott would have been petty and largely ignored.
Instead, we decided to have our own little protest, adhering to the rules of the Challenge. We decided to create a blog touting liberal talking points. Screaming into the void, as it were.
And, uh, we came up with the initial concept around March 21st... So, there was (quite) a bit of scrambling involved.
Luckily, we got a couple helpers, and somehow the four of us managed to get 26 posts planned, written, and posted in time. (I got Z finished on April 26th.) Quite the scramble.
Political discourse has gotten ugly of late. Peaceful protest is the way through. #resist
Each contributor to the blog was invited to reflect on her posts. These reflections follow:
Liz A.
I doubted my sanity several times during April. This was the sort of thing that should have been planned out in February. and there's a reason I don't do politics on my blog. I suck at it.
Somehow, I managed to "delegate" the first week of posts to others. Enough time to catch my breath. And the other contributors knocked it out of the park. I was blow away by how good their posts came out.
I never intended to scramble a Challenge, but this came up last minute. More planning time would have ironed out some of the kinks, but otherwise I think things went very well.
Songbird
I am always up to a challenge. I wear my politics on my sleeve. So this was perfect for me, I am so happy to have been a part of this. I'm a proud member of the ACLU, a Planned Parenthood volunteer, and the parent of two millennials. I'm concerned about the world I'm leaving to my children and grandchildren, and this blog gave me an opportunity to express my thoughts on topics that concern me.
Political discourse really has gotten so ugly as you say. It makes me incredibly sad. We should be able to have positive discussions but that doesn't seem to be the way things go. Congrats on pulling your a to z challenge together so late in the game. WeekendsInMaine
ReplyDeleteThanks. I think part of the problem is one side thinks it's right and won't listen to the other. And the other side is so angry about this that they aren't attempting to reason. It's taken a while to get here, so there are no easy answers.
DeleteHaving been the recipient of some of those offensive things, I was glad y'all did this.
ReplyDeleteI notice he didn't bother to visit over here. Or at least not comment.
I enjoyed the posts.
You're one of the main reasons this blog exists. I found it interesting how he said you weren't discussing things with him, yet his posts were one-sided and pretty tone deaf. Ah well.
DeleteYou're welcome to contribute to this blog in the future if you'd like.
And that was after he marched off in a huff from my blog saying how unwelcome he was there when I had made absolutely no mention of him or made any reference to him. It was clear he didn't actually want to engage in any actual discussion. But, you know, whatever.
DeleteI watched a conversation between him and another liberal leaning fellow where he did nothing more than dismiss the VERY logical statements as nonsense.
I'd love to. If there are ever any of my posts you want to use, just let me know, or, if you want me to write something specific, let me know that, too.