The Great Unifier

The Great Unifier.

That is the name that I have decided to give the blogosphere. The Great Unifier. I have traveled extensively in the Blogosphere from Georgia to the Phillipines, Singapore, Mozambique, Tanzania and back again. And this is only the beginning. But more important than the different physical locales that I’ve traveled to are the different opinions and points of view that I’ve been exposed to. The varying perspectives presented either overtly in blog posts or more subtly in a sidebar.

I have visited blogs that are written by radical right wingers, feminists, womanists, all about power to the people – people being whoever the writer represents. I have gone to hair spots and beauty spots, fashion blogs and animal lovers (I must admit the cat people are an interesting bunch). I have visited mommies and daddies. Most of my travels are in the mommy clique but I have also visited single men, single woman, single mothers, teen boys and teen girls. And have had the pleasure of reading their words.

At a good number of the places and spaces I visit I leave my mark. Sometimes I post a witty comment and at others a dissenting opinion. But I am always respectful of the writer and their work. Sometimes I am the sole person commenting outside of family and I receive a note so thankful that someone else read their words. One place I visited I commented on a post that I had political differences with. It happened to be a mommy blog with a couple of guest writers- each discussing the current presidential race from their political perspective. The mommy and her husband are on opposing sides of this presidential race and she gave him a platform to speak. A disagreement ensued in the comments and I along with a few others were called out by name because of our opinions. The author of the blog wrote to all of us and apologized. I appreciated the sentiment but thought it unnecessary. We are not always going to agree and as long as we can disagree respectfully I am cool with that.

I guess the point I am making is that as I cruise the blogosphere it doesn’t matter if I hold the same political or religious views of the writer or if I am of the same ethnicity or nationality of the person I am visiting. I treat everyone with respect and if I read something that is seriously offensive I close my browser and move on. Making a note to self never to travel that way again. That is the beauty of the Great Unifier.

We are all on equal ground. All of our voices can be heard and those that choose to can read or move on. We have the potential to influence others and the blogosphere is a powerful tool to get our personal thoughts out there and see what others are thinking.

This is a beautiful thing. So many times we are guessing what folks with differing opinions are up to. Here we have this information on a silver platter. I feel blessed to have the ability to interact with democrats and republicans, Christians and Jews, pagans and witches. Old and young, computer savvy or just learning. Professional writers and wanna be writers. We may not always agree but we can learn from each other in a way that otherwise would not be possible without The Great Unifier. Perhaps you are not ready to truly be a part of The Great Unifier and remain comfortable visiting in your niche. That is okay too. But please understand that you have an opportunity to learn that folks you may not agree with fundamentally are just like you in more ways than you think. Ultimately I believe this is the biggest eye opener. At least it has been for me. And I for one am thankful. I don’t really know who to thank for this opportunity I will just say thank you God for the technology and thank you folks for putting your voice out there. Suffice it to say but I am enjoying myself immensely.

* Note * I do realize that there remains a digital divide and unfortunately not everyone has access to this wealth of information. There are still numerous homes without access to computers and like everything else it generally breaks down to socio-economics. I personally wish there was a way for everyone to have computer access, perhaps our world leaders can work on that. But barring that there is one way I know of to make a difference. If you know of a mommy/family/individual that you think is deserving of a computer visit 5 Minutes for Mom. They are hosting a giveaway of an HP laptop and printer for a deserving individual. Nominate someone there. They are accepting nominations until August 27th and announcing a winner on August 29th.

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