Being childfree myself (that is, possessing the mindset of “I do not plan to ever have children” for a multitude of reasons), I naturally sought out a few online communities that other childfree people gathered unto, after I discovered that I wasn’t alone in this style of living. What I immediately latched onto was a Livejournal.com community, here. This as been, for the most part, an unpleasant experience.
From my very first post introducing myself, although I did receive a few welcoming greetings, the vast majority of it was hatemail, right from the start! These people are the most embittered, irritable and outright grumpy people I have ever met online. The vast majority of the posts in this forum are related to someone describing an irritating incident they encountered in daily life, such as how insurmountably frustrated they get with children running about loose and parents who often seem to be aloof about their child’s whereabouts. Admittedly they mostly seemed like just a need to rant for a bit, or to blow off some steam, but after post upon post about the same thing, incessantly, I began to seriously question the sanity of many of these members. I will disclaim that some of them are more lucid in their posts, giving reasonable due credit to the hectic moments of trying to corrale wild swaths of munchkins — no easy task.
Then there came a post in early February about a Right-to-Life group in Racine, Wisconsin, who had sent a mailer out to all of its residents that contained a small plastic fetus and a letter with a pro-Life message. Someone linked to a local news station’s site that described the incident, got some reactions from people, and only included sparse details. I noticed that one portion of the story described how many residents had sent their plastic fetus back to the group, in outright offense. The LJ Childfree group seemed to jump right in on this.
It was then that I decided to write to the Racine Right-to-Life bunch to ask if I could get one of those mailouts myself, even though I lived in Texas — in exchange for some positive press — which I intended to give, and do so now. The positive press I had intended to give was that sometimes when making an unusual type of mailout as this group has done, it can have unforseen consequences (both favorable and otherwise) much further than intended. It has indeed spawned discussion, perhaps on an even broader scale than original fathomed. I would sincerely like to thank the Racine branch of Wisconsin Right-to-Life for their extremely professional manner and thought-provoking strategy to encourage discussion.
So I got the letter in the mail and decided to take a little photo of the plastic fetus and typed out the letter to share with everyone to ridicule as they pleased — but this time having some actual details with which to base their finger-pointing instead of just wild speculation. I did not fully realize the insatiable taste for foul-mouthing that the LJ Childfree group possessed until I posted the letter for everyone to read — they presumed instead (despite clearly stating the reverse) that I had presumed to post the letter so that everyone could be exposed to propaganda I personally thought that everyone needed to see, as in, that I believed to be true. Somehow from that misunderstanding, despite the fact I stated clearly what the letter post was for and that it referenced an earlier LJ Childfree post’s subject matter but added much-needed clarification, I received more hate-mail than I have ever received in my days in forum membership, and I’ve received quite a bit. These people latched on to a completely flawed impression and in their red-in-the-face, misplaced fury to tell me how much I was wrong (despite the fact I clearly stated why I was posting the letter), proceeded to disembowel their own kind in their blinded hatred of all things that remotely defended the practice of childbearing.
Apparently, at least one single person requested that I put the image of the little plastic fetus (sitting next to my cellphone for a size comparison) behind a cut (an LJ function that clips a section of a post behind a blinder that will only be viewed if clicked upon), and since I didn’t have the time to sift through every single response within their purportedly “long enough” time frame (a matter of 2-3 days), the admins decided to completely delete the thread because I didn’t honor the request. Do what now? So now I can’t link to the thread I’ve posted. However, LJ does send out emails about all comments you receive (including the comments themselves) and just happened to quote the entire post when notifying me. And here it is, below.
I wrote the Racine Wisconsin Right-to-Life group (that was posted about recently regarding the small plastic fetuses) to see if they would send me one in exchange for some positive press (which I intend to give on my non-LJ blog, ablestmage.com) and they did. The accompanying letter, which according to the news article was deemed offensive, is typed out below. What do you think? Here’s the size of the plastic fetus compared to my cell phone:
January 28, 2008
Dear Resident of Racine,
January 22, 2008, marks the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. For 35 years our society has struggled over the issue of abortion. Oftentimes the debate has focused on the mother’s legal right to choose to terminate the life of her unborn baby and has not focused on the baby him or herself.
We believe that the enclosed ‘Young One’ model, which illustrates God’s beautiful creation of an unborn baby at 11-12 weeks, will help bring both the mother and baby into the discussion. This model has been distriuted world-wide and is being used by doctors, nurses, academia and others. It has also helped women heal in their journey from a miscarriage and yes, even abortion.
We are sending the ‘Young One’ model to all of the residents of Racine to help remind them of the humanity that is the unborn baby. Hopefully you will accept this gift and utilize it as so many millions have over the years. We suggest that you use the model to involve your family nd friends in the discussion of human development. In our country, abortion kills approximately 3,500 unborn babies each day and most are the same size as this model.
What can you do to help stop this tragedy? There are many things that can be done.
* Pray for the unborn, their mothers and fathers.
* Refer women who are considering abortion to people who will help them find positive solutions to their problems.
* Refer women who have aborted to organizations that can help in their healing process. Be their friend and not their judge.
* Become informed on the subject of abortion by contacting the local Pro-Life organization or by viewing our website at ww.wrtl.org.
* Contact your legislators on critical pro-life legislation — sign up for e-voice at: www.wrtl.org/e-voice.htm.
* Help pay for this mailing by making a tax-deductible contribution to the Wisconsin Right-to-Life Education Fund using the enclosed envelope.
Thank you for accepting the gift of the ‘Young One’ model. Carry it with you at all times and contact us if you desire more information.
Best wishes from:
The Racine County Chapter of Wisconsin Right-to-Life
End Reposted Livejournal Entry @ Childfree
I got such an incredible outpouring of fuming-mad edicts of condemnation that I was later compelled to amend the original post by noting:
Clarification: I’m not posting the letter because I agree with it or think you should too, but that it is relevant data in reference to this post from January, so people could read the letter for themselves to ridicule it or whatever as they pleased, with greater insight on what they were poking fun at from the earlier post.
The positive press I had intended to give it was not in agreement, but in acknowledgement that a simple information distributing method can have unintentional second-hand benefits that spread your message further than one had expected, this case being the prime example.
Apparently, though, blatant assumptions about my intentions were all that were necessary before sending me a nuclear explosion of hate-mail in outright red-faced condemnation. That doesn’t say a lot about credibility. A lot of people asked first, though, which was refreshing.
That seemed to quench enough of the hatemongering, but didn’t keep the admins happy enough to contact me in some way that would actually seem wise before completely deleting the post altogether without giving me the opportunity to respond to allegations. So there you have it.
Interesting way you’ve twisted the facts. You were asked to follow the community rules, given AMPLE time to do so, and the rules were enforced when you did not comply. The community mods were under absolutely NO obligation to go out of their way to contact you when you were the one who couldn’t follow the SIMPLE, easy-to-read rules on the community userinfo page in the first place.
In other words, your butthurt is astounding.
My case in point precisely. I did follow the rules, precisely. It was the cannibals who didn’t actually read what I posted and went wild with their twisted, assumption-bearing delusions that caused all the stir. I made a childfree-favorable post and the the particular members whose emotional howitzers are easier to set off than a Sherman driving through a minefield took it as an attack and unleashed their obscene filth upon one of their own without bothering to check the facts first. I followed the rules. The mods are obligated to check the facts before they join the donnybrook. The infraction of failing to follow orders IN TIME was overtly minor compared to the outlash of utter obscenity that was heaped upon me. There were about three dozen seperate conversations going on at one time, and I’m somehow obligated to read every single one of them, and failed to see one of them IN TIME and, oops! offended someone! The pot sure called the kettle on that one.
i hate childfree group.
good on you, though. shame they bit your head off.
“My case in point precisely. I did follow the rules, precisely”
No, you didn’t, unless actually meant “I did follow the rules I wanted to follow”. All images, videos, etc. must be placed behind a cut. I’m not even a moderator and I know that.
Because I read the rules.
I had originally placed it behind a cut but the LJ entry code didn’t accept it, and I didn’t re-read my own post after just having typed it all out to make sure it was. It was actually [lj-cut text="..."] instead of the [lj cut="..."] that I had put.
However, feel free to completely legitimize anusclownery.