CenLamar

Once again, I know I’m going to get lambasted; I know I’m going to be called, yet again, some variation of a “rich, liberal, petty, spoiled, little brat” by Mr. Greg Aymond, who will, more than likely, put my name in bold capital letters in his headline and may also choose to litter his response with profanity, because that really drives home the point.

I’ve been reading Mr. Aymond’s insights on government and politics for nearly four years now. Maybe I shouldn’t be admitting to such, but unlike New Orleans, which has a vibrant and diverse blogosphere, Alexandria only has a handful of bloggers, of which Mr. Aymond is easily the most prolific.

Anyway, after four years of reading his blog posts- some with which I agree and many with which I disagree, I have arrived at a few conclusions. My personal opinions:

1) He is a bully:

Setting aside his crusade against Rich Dupree and the entire e-mailgate controversy, which, thus far, has resulted in the expenditure of thousands of taxpayer dollars and nothing definitively damning or felonious, Mr. Aymond has also publicly crusaded against Ed Hooper, the blogger behind WeSawThat, and has disclosed that he is now suing Mr. Hooper for defamation because of a series of posts in which Mr. Hooper labels Mr. Aymond as “unethical.” For the record, I don’t believe Mr. Aymond is unethical. I think he is a bully, and being a bully is not necessarily against the law. I enjoy a good argument and an informed debate. But after suing Mr. Hooper, Mr. Aymond then proceeded to publish a series of posts that, I believe, were intended to personally and publicly insult Mr. Hooper’s intelligence. To me, there seems to be some cognitive dissonance here. Personally, I think Mr. Hooper is a little reckless (and his whole Zionist conspiracy stuff is really off-putting), but Mr. Aymond undercuts his “I’ve been defamed” argument every single time he publishes rants against the very person he claims defamed him. I have noticed that since Mr. Aymond announced his decision to sue Mr. Hooper, Mr. Hooper has stayed away, while Mr. Aymond continues to bully. I’m not attempting to stick up for Mr. Hooper; I’m just calling it as I see it.

He has publicly insulted me, repeatedly, and most of the time, frankly, I don’t care. I don’t know Greg Aymond. I’ve never met him. A year or two ago, I spoke with him on the telephone on a few occasions, and he was always courteous. I don’t consider him to be a journalist, no more than I consider myself to be one. He writes a blog about his personal opinions, and he is absolutely entitled to that right, as am I.

When I express my opinions, contrary to what he may say, I am not carrying water for anyone. I am an unclassified employee of the Mayor. I predict that, after this post, Mr. Aymond will imply, as he has in the past, that because I derive a portion of my income from taxpayer dollars, I should be ashamed for expressing my own opinions. To him, I would ask this: As a disabled American, I have to wonder: When you say that you draw a disability check, who, exactly, pays for that check? Is your disability check funded entirely by private-sector dollars? What about your health care?

2) We give him far too much attention:

He is prolific, and I take the blame for drawing even more attention to him. But I think there is a good reason the Mayor didn’t want to interview with him on his blog. He employs racial epithets and then claims he is simply championing free speech or channeling rap music. Most intelligent folks simply don’t buy that, particularly when it’s delivered from a former member of the Ku Klux Klan. Sorry.

3) Most importantly, he doesn’t seem to understand the role and function of government:

Mr. Aymond, you imply that you somehow understand the details of the Downtown Hotels Initiative more than anyone involved. Yet you have never met or even spoken with any of the principal deal-makers. You don’t know their numbers. You don’t seem to understand that people have to purchase tax credits, and you don’t seem to understand how the whole project works.

You’re ignorant about this project, and your ignorance begets ignorance.

One day, maybe you’ll be interested in the truth, but until then, people should understand that you don’t actually know what you’re writing about.

So sue me, because, to me, that is all you seem to know how to do whenever anyone confronts you, and frankly, you’ve set yourself up for a slam-dunk counter-suit.