.Main Line Suburban Life > OpinionAs I See It: Blogging is here to stay, and people should just get used to itPublished: Wednesday, July 29, 2009By Carla J. ZambelliI did not set out in life to blog any more than I set out to be a communityactivist. It just happened.Call it fate, call it kismet, or call it a means to an end when elected andappointed officials decide to turn deaf ears on the public. For me, that is how itall started. And it grew from there. Sometimes I think blogging is like living inmy own reality show. Maybe we should call it “Real Bloggers?”The impetus of this editorial stems from a column by Main Line Media Newsexecutive editor Tom Murray, who wrote about blogging and Radnor Township. It wastitled “Yes, Radnor Township residents, there is a police chief.” Well, Tom, yesRadnor does, but between the time that Radnor bloggers and others were speculatingon more trouble at home at 301 Iven Ave. and when you wrote your editorial, sometime passed. And I still think the Radnor bloggers got it right, so we’ll have toagree to disagree on that one. After all, it was those Radnor bloggers who firstbroke open Maine vacations, wasn’t it?Yes, Radnor has bloggers now. I used to think that municipal code prohibited it,along with criticizing elected officials in public, but it’s a brave new world outthere. The turmoil in Radnor caused by quite simply, politics as usual, has causedRadnor residents to find their voices. I think it’s healthy. Healthier thanpretending there are no problems or being afraid of elected officials andpolitical machines.So let’s talk about being a blogger, or “citizen journalist.” Sometimes we writeabout what we had for dinner, and sometimes we write about who that politician haddinner with. Sometimes we are just giggling over political shenanigans and apolitical-blog lampoon is born.Do politicians like blogs and bloggers? Heck no. Ending up on a blog is like beingcaught outside in your underwear. Politicians are all about the image, and whenthe emperor has no clothes, the image can get tarnished, can’t it? I thinkblogging is a way for the common man to level the playing field. I like to thinkbloggers can make a difference. After all, look at what blogging has done for thebillboard issue in Haverford. Look at eminent domain in Ardmore.Politicians, despite protestations to the contrary, know that blogs can be goodfor them. Sometimes they will release a statement or will even create a blogduring an election cycle. Simply put: they like it when they can control theoutput; they don’t like it when they can’t.I know Radnor Township doesn’t like being blog fodder anymore than Lower Merion,but I have to ask all those politicians and appointed officials out there why theygive us so much to talk about.Why is blogging on the Main Line such a big deal? Is being a blogger like havingchronic halitosis? Or do people who complain about blogs complain about thembecause they have not figured a way to use them to their own advantage yet?OK, I will admit I have a lot of opinions and am as politically inconvenient asthe next local blogger. But so what? Is it better to go through life as what ablogger with the handle Politeia calls “sheeple?” I am amused by the festering
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