The Value Of One (Small) Voice In The Wilderness

[The Deacon]

I recently linked to a website listed in a thread here on DU - I don't even remember who's, there were so many - to protest ABC's airing of The Path to 9/11. This particular website (and, again, I'm sorry I don't remember which, I went on many that week) recommended that, since ABC hadn't sold any advertising for The Path to 9/11 that people email ABC's regular advertisers to try to register our displeasure. The website even provided links to various advertisers - I clicked on several & did, indeed, register my disapproval of their support of ABC. This, of course, was in addition to emailing "the usual suspects." Frankly, I thought little about it, this action seeming a side issue to the main one of letting my Congressional delegation, ABC Corporate, Disney Corporate, local ABC affiliate & local newspaper know of my personal disgust that someone would put fictional dialog in the mouths of people I believe to have been trying their very best.

I expected nothing more than form emails back from advertisers - and wasn't disappointed. Only one seemed a little "snarky" and I decided to post it, along with my equally snarky reply on the GD Board - simply for the amusement of my fellow DUers. It can be found here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2127833

I was greatly surprised by the reactions it provoked - I had thought it would simply die out, as so many do, overwhelmed by the doings of Pundits & People In Power in respect to The Path to 9/11.

I seem to have struck a nerve in many of my fellow DUers - perhaps the same nerve which caused me to reply in a snarky manner, the nerve that has been hit so often of late. The one that reacts to those who seem to say:

"Thank you for registering your opinion - and allow us to pretend we consider it."

That nerve apparently exists in another DUer - his thread can be found here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2128748

Suddenly, what I had thought an afterthought in a campaign against a repugnant film, and the afterthought of posting one response to it for the amusement of my fellow DUers, has become something of a mini-boycott.
And then I remembered Joe Liebermann, "victim of Internet bloggers" according to Main Stream Media Pundits - who then dismiss us as having no real power.

"Thank you for registering your opinion - and allow us to pretend we care."

But Mr. Liebermann lost the primary. And a small boycott of an advertiser has started. Because someone, just like me, sitting at a computer, spoke in their one, small voice. And connected with another voice out there in the electronic wilderness. And another.

So, the next time someone dismisses you as just one, small voice remember the power we have discovered here, in a community of lone, small voices - and reply to those Pundits & People In Power:

"Thank you for registering your opinion - and allow us to pretend it matters."