The Independence Day Massacre:

or The Day They Killed the Blog

It was a wordacide: they grabbed

our conversations, tossed them aside

dumped them into what they called

a water cooler, but we knew it was

a trick, a fooler, because they

deleted everything we said all day.

It was a communityacide. They decided

they had to get rid of us, and

the way to do it with the least

amount of fuss was by saying they

would make the blog more efficient, would

bring in new members, dispose of the deficient

in their ability to stay on topic. "Didn't

matter," they said, "how few the posters,

it was the substance of the writing,"

so said the hosters, Danny in his sincerity,

which somehow never brought clarity

and Pompous Charles with his scolding.

So, after five years of knowing

each other, being inspired, warmed,

informed, and sometimes heated, the feeling

is that we've been cheated, our

membership irrelevant, our wills ignored,

the community we made insulted and deplored.

It all happened on July the Fourth

the day we celebrate the Declaration

of our rights and liberties, our solidarity,

yet on Democracy for America, our

beloved blog, the functionaries

disposed of us, killed off our community.

~~ Pat Maslowski
AKA Pat in Colorado