SAVING HOLLYWOOD

Boycott Hollywood, that is. Could I be more confusing? Let me start at the beginning...

Some time ago the situation with the web site Boycott Hollywood came to my attention. Attorneys for the William Morris Agency, agents to the stars, were threatening to shut the site down. Had succeeded, in fact, as the web host had notified the site that they were going to pull the plug on them within hours. I was probably one of the first to hear of this, having caught mention of it on another Blog who may have been the first to post on it.

Now, being in the service of my country, sworn to support and defend the constitution, etc. etc., this kind of suppression of free speech tends to (ahem) irritate me a little. Especially during an actual war currently being fought in defense of that freedom. Whether for Hollywood morons or the everyday brilliant geniuses who actually make America great, when I say defend free speech I mean it. When I say I was irritated, I mean it's lucky for Kim Jung Il I wasn't still in Korea.

But what could I do about it? Nothing really. A bigger Blog then mine was already posting about it. So for a half second I was going to move on and hope for the best. Then I remembered that I'm a Florida voter (really) and that every vote counts.

And two, here was a real chance to test Greyhawk's theory: "The (so-called) liberal view in the liberal vs. conservative debate can not survive the immediate 'printed' media that is today's web." See the connection? My thought was that the Blogosphere would certainly "act up" on this one. I truly believed the liberal elite had underestimated their opponent on this one. They may have thought they were taking on one little web site, but they were going to learn differently. There are an estimated 3 million Blogs in America today.

But again I thought, why bother? I had convinced myself that this problem would be solved with or without me. No action was required on my part. And any action I did take would likely be an exercise in futility.

But then that Florida voter thing came back again.

So I did the only thing I could do about it, and committed myself to doing whatever else I could. I researched (15 minutes work) every involved party in the situation, their websites and e-mail. (Original posts I had seen had not listed this information.) I sent a quick e-mail to the attorney's (carefully worded) then put all my efforts together in this blog entry posted it and sat back. (Total work: one half hour.) Then I realized I could do more. I'm a fairly regular commenter on several different Blogs so I pasted the same piece into their comments sections, slightly modified each time for the "target audience". In most cases these posts provoked heavy discussion (a lot of my Blogging buddies are attorneys) and some heavy e-mail traffic. But also a result occurred that I didn't anticipate.

On one of my visits to Boycott Hollywood shortly after I noted some posts in their comments section on this story that made me a bit suspicious. A familiar name popped up, similar to someone who is a regular visitor here. And this person had purchased (registered) domain names for Boycott Hollywood that would let them continue operations with minimal expense.

So I sent an e-mail to my suspect, and shortly after got a reply. I was right. The "Angel" that helped Boycott Hollywood was a reader of this web site that had actually first heard of the situation through one of my posts. Furthermore, a connection with a web hosting service (one with a spine) allowed this person to help set up a new site for the beleaguered Boycott Hollywood. This host will not buckle under at the first sign of trouble from the liberal elite, I'm sure. So don't expect Boycott Hollywood to go away any time soon. (Unless they want to.)

Three conclusions I draw from these events:

One: Never believe your actions are futile or don't matter. Boycott Hollywood probably would have been "saved" even without my meager efforts. (I'm even more convinced that Greyhawk's Theory is right, and that my theory doesn't need me.) But hey! I played a part! The obvious moral: Take action! It does matter!

Two: Angel is my hero. And a great and true American. I'm proud to serve a country that has people like her in it. Thank you Angel. It's going to be easier for me to go to work tomorrow.

Three: I'm proud to serve a country where good wins over evil. And that is fundamentally what really happened here. It doesn't always work like that. To you good people at Boycott Hollywood: Thank you for persevering against heavy odds. Your foe appeared bigger, stronger, and faster then you, but look who won. That is truly inspiring.

Keep the faith people!