<p>For unrelated reasons I had the misfortune of reading the blog entry that she posted from the gathering in Tucson. I was amazed at the oozing bitterness and resentment she freely vented about a community that would dare to do all that it could to come together after a violent tragedy and shine a light on the community’s positive virtues instead of all the negativity.</p>
<p>Somehow she got hung up on who was paying for t-shirts that were handed out and felt that Democrats were “branding” the event! (Someone had told me about the t-shirts being offensive and I was trying to understand how they were offensive…and all Internet roads led me to Michelle Malkin’s page which seemed to be the source of the contrived outrage.)</p>
<p>I may have been vaguely aware of her name before – though I wonder if I am confusing her name with Leonard Maltin or Michael Milken or both. Clearly I don’t follow politics closely enough to update my scorecard with all the bloggers who come and go and which team they write for. But I do know that it takes a special kind of insanely bitter predisposition to take up seating space at a community tribute to shooting victims for the purpose of b!tching to the world about how expertly the event was pulled together. I’ve got to agree with Inquisitive Mom: saying that this blogger should know better because she went to Oberlin is not saying much. My daughter knew better than that after her first day at Montessori school.</p>
<p>I have no gripe with this woman’s conservative politics. That’s because what I read wasn’t the least bit political; it was propaganda in support of her political identity. I only take issue with her warped anger and resentment towards a community in shock. As for why Oberlin seemingly shuns her, my guess is that it is not because she has the “wrong” political credentials. Does she do anything more than blog and – possibly – offer up opinions on the occasional cable newsertainment talk show? If not, then I would hope that being opinionated is not something that rises to the level of “notable alum” for any decent college. In other words, I doubt that it’s her politics that excludes her from such a list; just her insignificance. But if that does suffice – and her tone is consistently as caustic as it was in that blog from Tucson – then it’s no wonder that Oberlin doesn’t mention her in its publications. I don’t know more of her beyond that blog post of hers that I read (and now I also know that she went to Oberlin). Unless she has some other claim to fame or she redeems herself in her other commentary, who – besides (possibly) her parents – would boast of a connection to her? Yuck.</p>
<p>Until opening up this thread, I’ve long said that – without exception – each and every Oberlin alum I know is the kind of person I always feel privileged to be in the company of. That statement still holds true – as long as I avoid ever running into this blogger with the vaguely recognizable name. It’s silly to extrapolate from a random “notable alum” to divine the culture of an entire college but Stewart probably did Oberlin no favor in making that reference.</p>