Your argument is that virtue, merit and ethics depend on the situation and the forum. It is called, I believe, “situational ethics.”

By extension of that logic, this is a forum where merit, virtue and ethics are less necessary and less important and can be ignored if the circumstances call for it.

I won’t comment on your somewhat harsh judgment of this site as you imply those things are not called for here. Further, I’m glad, by extension of your argument, that you consider the website run by my employer as the one in which merit, virtue and ethics are called for, if not always observed.

Not to sound too sanctimonious (too late!), I hope never to put myself in a position in which I feel comfortable setting virtue, merit or ethics aside. I consider that a way to live, a way to conduct yourself, not an irksome rule to be applied only on websites where it is the rule of thumb.

If it is simplistic to subscribe to merit, virtue in ethics in all things you do and not just when the website calls for it, then color me simplistic. (He now climbs down off his soapbox and immediately slips and falls face down in the mud.)

To answer the question what is stopping me, personally, from standing behind what I ‘say’ – nothing. Some things are better said off the record and others on the record. I stand behind my thoughts here and the ones I offer as me. It shouldn’t make either any less valid. These are personal opinions or observations and not presented as political platforms to be held to by anyone. I am just human and sometimes make mistakes in my logic and reasoning and this is a venue to kinda ‘sound it out’ sometimes.

I don’t ask for respect for this choice, though I do ask for kind consideration from those that read what I do have to say when I say it.

That’s all.

Not a fair comparison. The sites have different owners, different objectives, and a different reader base. Judgement of virtue, merit, and ethics aside, it’s simplistic to think that makes no difference.

I assure you that I am in no way connected to the Mercury and I also have no problem identifying myself. I simply used an alias to make my opinion known.

My name is Lynn Reinhart, I grew up in the local Pottstown area and have been working for a local construction company for a number of years. A colleague of mine told me about this site one day and I looked at it out of curiosity. My father was a Mercury employee a very very long time ago. As a result, I became a loyal reader when I was only a teenager, a trait which has continued with me far into my adulthood. Also as a result of that, I became aware at a very young age just how hard Mercury employees work to do their job, which is reporting the facts, while at the same time trying to better Pottstown, and I believe that all of the current employees do the exact same thing today. Hence, my dislike for when the Mercury and its employees are criticized.

As far as I am aware, Evan is the only Mercury employee who is on here. Nice try.

Who’s next?

Show me yours and I will show you mine!!

I admit that I am now also probably falling into that category, but this whole idea that the Mercury is promoting hate and violence is so completely ridiculous that I can’t keep quiet anymore. And now you are going to allow the same kind of “incendiary” comments (and also stories), except targeted at one specific person?

I agree with Sue’s comment that provocation should not be given online if things want to be accomplished. I thought everyone else who has commented agreed. Apparently not.