Thinking about Blogs

For my blog, I pretend I have an audience. Sometimes I point family or friends to a particular blog entry that I think might interest them. But in general, I assume that in my blog I'm singing into the wind--and that nobody is listening. And that doesn't bother me.

I found out a couple days ago that is not entirely true. There was a message on my telephone urgently asking me to delete some reader comments from a blog entry--because of fear the comments might hurt the family of a beloved friend who was killed in Vietnam. The phone message took me aback: I hadn't realized that anyone had read that blog entry; and I was unaware that there were 2 reader comments left in response to my entry. The reader comments were very, very interesting; but I can see how they might hurt the family of the fallen soldier (and his companion, who also died that day in Vietnam). As soon as I could figure out how to do it, I removed the 2 potentially hurtful comments. And then I finally deleted the entire entry.

By the way, the entry was originally intended to honor 3 men who were killed in Vietnam: my cousin Tommy, my college friend and classmate, Steve, and my grade-school and high school classmate, Buddy. I still honor them, their memory, and their sacrifices. But I think in this situation removing this particular blog entry is the right thing to do.

Thanks, Jim, for your remarks and your phone call. I don't know if this means anything to you, but I'll keep you, Steve, Tommy, Buddy, and all the soldiers living and dead who fought in Vietnam, in my prayers.