An Open Letter to Patch Staff

April 7, 2014

Dear Patchogue Patch Staff,

I am writing to you in an open letter because: (a) I couldn’t find anywhere to send a more private e-mail; and (b) I’ve got nothing to hide in what I have to say.  I have become increasingly alarmed over comments made on this site, especially after Ben Vitale’s post “How to Post… and Not Get Suspended.”

I am the called pastor at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior, where we promote differences and try to find common humanity, which in our faith, we call the Holy Spirit; this Holy Spirit, we recognize, is in all people—almost like an equalizing factor when everything else about a person is different.  We within the congregation don’t always agree, which is true if you come to any Bible study on a Wednesday night.  And politically, we have our “progressive” liberals to our “staunch” conservatives.  Arguably, we can always be more diverse, but we are members who are open to hearing a different perspective, reflecting on what this means to us, and using it as needed.

I have been in this church for just less than a year.  It hasn’t always been easy, but when communication became a problem, we dealt with it as best we could.  Currently, we have formed a communication task force to deal with breakdowns that happen in the various ways we communicate.  We are also in the process of forming a Safe Church Task Force which will look at how we can protect the people who use our church, which will address topics such as cyber-bullying.

I applaud this site for giving us residents local news and being that independent voice for the community.  However, I do not stand by the aggressive comments that are made on some blogs, like the blog mentioned above.  According to this blog, anything that is abusive, profane, or defamatory (i.e. slanderous) or threatens or harasses, or is inaccurate or misleading (among other criteria) will be taken off from the comment section.  This I applaud and think it wonderful that there are clear guidelines.  However, given the many comments made, including certain people’s usernames which suggests profanity, the attacks on people’s character, and the diffusion of responsibility on the part of Patchogue Patch to limit these conversations given what the blog itself is addressing has me confused.  In fact, in one comment by the blog poster, Ben claims that these rules are set by “Patch”, which I take to mean the hierarchy and does not suggest that these rules will necessarily be followed by the individual patches themselves.

It seems that the biggest argument many who defend their right to say anything they feel like is based off of the First Amendment.  The First Amendment right of “freedom of speech” was not written for moments such as this.  A blog site that is viewer friendly should be open to empowering people to speak, not shutting them down.  When the First Amendment was written, is was directed towards the English Parliament which didn’t allow the colonies in the new world to have any say as to how much they get taxed, what is taxed, etc.  Freedom of speech also removed a censorship from the people living in the colonies to voice their objection against government.  In many ways, the First Amendment was used to promote conversation among those in minority situations, not to destroy it.

In like manner, freedom of speech does not allow for slander, malicious intent, or putting someone’s life in danger.  If not handled appropriately, all that e-mails, blogs, and other forms of social media project is uncontrolled anger, and for a prime example, see the comments made between “Archie Bunker” and “Carol Reitz-Bulter” which had absolutely nothing to do with the article itself.

To use the first amendment, I would say that a website should be promoting dialogue, not ending it, and that there are civil ways to disagree without slandering or ruining a person’s reputation.  The fact is that in the blog post cited above, most of the comments had nothing to do with what the blog site was about, that there was a threat made and it still wasn’t deleted, that people were airing “dirty laundry” from months ago (again not pertinent to the blog), and that the sole purpose of this blog does not carry through with what was promised.  If anything, this blog looks to be a ratings grab so that those who have stopped reading from Patchogue Patch may try one more time to find sanctuary; sadly, the comments left beneath did anything but.

My hope is that you hold tight to your stance spelled out in the blog itself.  Remember, there are readers out there who want to see good communication and what better way than through a local media site.  Don’t let cyber-bullying and irrelevancy take center stage.  Remove the comments that tear down people because they are “just to [sic] stupid and don’t understand” as one commenter observed.  Allow those without a voice to find one on your site.  That’s the news I believe in.

I have faith that your website can promote good in this community, even while reporting on the bad.  I know you can help heal past hurts through conversation, even as some would love to tear it down.  It won’t be an easy journey, but part of being in the media is to decide what to report on and what to censor.  We all do it; we all pick movie/book genres to delve into because the other fields don’t interest us.  We major in a specific field at college because the other fields are not our thing.  We follow certain faith practices, sports, and/or news because they move us.  Day in and day out, media choses on what to report, which is why Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS all report on different stories and give different projections on the same story.

All I’m asking is that you bring back the freedom of speech, which was meant for those who didn’t feel they had a voice because someone in power censored them before.  I’m asking that you keep the comments directed to the pertinent story.  I’m asking that cyber-bullying stop right here and now.  I’m asking, because I know you can do that.  Otherwise, I will not be able to read the stories posted due to the negativity of slander, attacking, and cyber-bullying that lingers in the air after I finish reading; I will just stop interacting with this site and getting daily e-mail updates.  And I know I’m only one person, but for me, it’s the only thing I can do so I can focus on the commonality of humanity and help those who truly need my attention.

In my faith tradition, our savior, Jesus, went in his ministry to give voice to those who were considered ostracized and outsiders, because they were crippled, lame, or not pure enough to be part of the in-crowd.  He hardly ever sided with those who were in power because those in power never seemed to understand the reality of life on the margins.  While I know not everyone reading this blog would consider themselves Christian, he is the one to whom I look to guide my heart every day, and there have been people of other traditions that have used Jesus as a mentor figure. 

My prayers are with Patchogue Patch as you work tirelessly day in and day out to promote local news.  May you promote goodness of conversation, building up walls of community and making this small town a better place.

In peace,

Pastor Kevin O’Hara