Why "Anonymous" Is Good

A blog acquaintance is expressing a negative view about online anonymity...
If you take the time to go back and read my original posts you'll find, in the first few, my explanation about why I decided to remain an anonymous blogger. My desire was mostly fueled by the fact I didn't want to be limited in expressing myself here. I thought, (erroneously I've found), that I might be able to write at length when I was having trouble at work, or with family/friends. But in those first posts I recognized someone willing to read my blog and do the research could figure out who I am. That's even more true now than then. What I didn't realize was that many, including those same co-workers, family members, and friends could be guided to "Pitchpull" with a simple "Helicopter Blog" entry in any search engine. (That task is made a little more difficult because there is a Rock Band by the name of "Helicopter").

I spend a lot of time at work waiting for the telephone to ring. Much of that time I'm poking around on the internet reading news, surfing blogs, researching things of historical import to me. Sometimes I'll click on the "Next Blog" tab at the top of "Blogger" blogs just to see where it leads me. One night I did that and was transported to a blog with some interesting photographs, including an attractive face in the blogger's "Blogger" profile. I left a comment there expressing my appreciation for her work. The next day there was a comment here thanking me for my visit and complimenting me, saying how interesting she found "Pitchpull", and forthrightly asking me to stop by often and comment.
Heh.
Joan Rivers wrote a book, "Men Are Stupid... And They Like Big Boobs... " and Joan is MOSTLY right... Men ARE stupid. Men like boobs, big, small, and in-between. But I can tell you from experience, if a woman has an attractive face she can manipulate most men to do her bidding if she's smart, (and in my opinion most women are more wily than most men.)
So yes, compliments from this female blogger with a pretty face massaged my ego. I went back to her blog and found an email address in her profile and emailed her. From there a "virtual friendship" was formed.

At some point along the line I started hearing a great deal about "MySpace". Remember now, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to computers and much of what they can do for me, so I asked my new virtual friend about MySpace. She responded by helping me start my own account, then sent me her MySpace account address so I could check it out. What I found there shocked me...
She was almost completely open with the information she gave others there. I wrote her and told her she, a divorced Mother living by herself, was being too free with the information she was sharing with others. Surprised, she expressed doubt there was enough there for anyone to find her. So in less than ten minutes I dug a little, found her phone number, and called her. (She had a professional link to her son, and he was using his/her real last name.) She was dumbfounded. She'd been flirting with a few guys and had them sniffing around after her like puppy dogs. She suddenly realized any one of these guys could do what I had just done and could show up on her doorstep at any time. Too late, she began to try to cover her tracks a little.

I need not tell most of you this world is a dangerous place, getting more dangerous all the time. Just this past week we've seen a man arrested for vandalizing the headquarters of the political party he belongs to, trying to pass it off as hate from the opposing party.
Lunacy.
So when others complain about anonymity online and the ability it gives all of us to speak freely about our passions, please consider what I've written. If you want to find me I know you probably can, and I'm fairly well prepared for unwelcome visitors. But I'd obviously like to make it as difficult as possible for you to throw a brick through my picture window, just 'cause you disagree with my politics.

To the blogger who thinks I'm just a mirage...
Don't think we'd be friends? Yeah, I realize now you're probably right.
But you don't know me at all except you've read my claim that I spent a year trying to protect your right to come online and say whatever you want. (And my efforts were apparently successful, weren't they?!!)
But here's what seems odd to me...
If you don't like what you read here, why come?
Am I THAT FAR into your melon? Wow.
Would you like for me to free you from my curse?
Abra-cadabra, PLEASE and THANK YOU!...
You're free. You don't have to come here anymore!

Keep your rotor in the green, man.