Reply #135: Since the start of the new year I have seen long standing and popular members at DU

[jotsy]

get double and tripled teamed with hecklers who work a thread like neocons worked those those town hall brawls.

One of those respectably resilient folks has actually participated in this thread. Other colorful voices have been quieted, one in particular who has provided DUers with a great laugh on many occasion through the candor and simplicity of her wit is a voice I want returned to my community.
I am pretty new here, comparatively speaking. I discovered this place while trolling blogs for news as an ambitious radio news producer. I've only been posting since last May, mostly as a responder to the posts of others. In that short time, it has been suggested that I don't know what I'm talking about, that I speak in glittering generalities, and that I'm backwards. A wise senior DUer told me when I first started coming that I'd need thick skin.

These interlopers have proven that even leather can be cut like butter. I'm proud to be here and honored to circle what wagons can be gathered around some of the community's most precious gems, and bark some of those hecklers back down.

When it comes to confrontation and conflict I generally try to issue something of a warning:

"It is not my first inclination to break out my bitchy bone, but should you insist on seeing it, I have one to show you."

kicked for candor.