"Grieving Families?"

From E.T. (who tells it like it is):

A few weeks ago I got a message from a man who said I wasn't much of a publisher. I thought that just involved buying software from time to time and taking writers to lunch since that's what they tell me but if someone wants my thoughts I'll give you some.

I saw a post that this blog hurts grieving families, I suppose by writing about the crimes of murder. So just how does that work? I'll look at some recent blogs.

Tommy Arthur - His first victim was in 1977. Some of our writers were still in school. I was in Alaska in the military. How are we responsible for this family's grief? Troy Wicker who came later? Ditto the school thing for some. How does this blog cause grief for these families? 

Christie Scott - Yeah, we caused all her actions. Not sure how it works but it must be true if even one reader says so. Probably everyone who writes here would have taken her little boy and raised him. How are we responsible for his death?

Erica Fox - She hasn't even come to trial and she's playing the abused wife card. Yeah, let's not mention her affairs. That might just get her convicted of her crimes and no one would want that. Especially since this blog is responsible for her husband's death and his family's grief.

Ron Weems - I saw someone mention how this blog commented on his victim's death several times. They didn't mention that her aunt asked us to. No, why let facts get in the way of some good criticism? 


While we're commenting on this blog, its not connected to any news sites in the area, unless you count some advertising sales. Don't blame us for what the three sites publish and don't blame them for what we write here. And to a certain little effeminate twerp, please learn the difference between a forum, blog, and news site. 

And no, I didn't leave here in 2010 when three writers did. But you don't seem to care who's who. If you do, contact me and I'll fill you in.


E.T. 

*****

No, no one is responsible for the grief of any families except for the individual(s) who took their loved one's lives. These families can look the other way or they can demand justice...and that means a messy trial in most cases. 

We have never understood the philosophy of simply looking the other way. How does that improve society? We've never had anyone answer that question. 

Who is Shoalanda?

We have been communicating via e-mail with Anderon, one of our major critics in the past. He has been extremely cordial, but states one of his basic objections to this column is the lack of attribution. He points out that when one reads an article in the TimesDaily or similar publication, each story is printed under a byline.

Anderon is correct in this; however, those who write for the print media are employees of that publication. In other words, their articles are backed by their employers. We here at Shoalanda Speaks do not have that luxury. While all but one member of the Shoalanda group is a professional writer, we each have separate jobs that provide the majority of our income.

In brief, here is a biographical rundown of our current group:

E.T. - Male, Computer Programmer, Married, Shoals Native
Zara Goldstein - Female, Accountant, Married with Adult Children, New York Native
Nurse Nan - Female, Registered Nurse, Single, Shoals Native
Amaryllis Caskie - Female, Businesswoman, Married with Children, Shoals Native
Shoalanda Speaks - Female, Editor of this Blog, Shoals Native, and ???

All but one of our members have individual blogs either under their real names or the names listed above. Besides our sister blogs, we support other area blogs, including that of the ShoalsInsider and The Bookstore Speaks. We plan to add more in the near future.

We hope this clears up any misconceptions about Shoalanda. We are happy to publish guest columns and opposing views. We will post these verbatim under the author's name; if the author prefers to use a pseudonym, we reserve the right to edit for style and length. This blog belongs to the Shoals, and we hope to hear from you at shoalanda.speaks@gmail.com

Sincerely,

Shoalanda