Dear "Stupid Delegate"

I should probably leave this alone, but, frankly, I've had about enough. Dear "Stupid Delegate" (that's not a spelling error) was how an email began that was received today by a delegate-friend and supporter of Sen. Obama. That's just a mild taste of the kinds of emails "super" or "automatic" delegates have been getting. Never mind Clinton's gracious concession last Saturday, the site that makes it easy to mass email all delegates, Lobbydelegates.com is up and running strong. One of my friends is keeping copies of all the email she gets-she is certain that no one will believe how nasty people were unless she has the proof.

And, Clinton supporters are not alone in the bomb-throwing.

Earlier this week, I was on the receiving end of a mass email with the following subject line: "Your Whiteness is Showing: An Open Letter to Certain White Women." That email was directed to "white" women who were threatening to withhold support from Sen. Obama. Needless to say, it was not generated by the Obama campaign. Never mind that I've endorsed Obama, given to Obama, ran to be a delegate for Obama etc. I still had the pleasure of receiving that email.

Look, there are a lot of feelings floating around about the primary, and folks need to vent. I get that, but this is not the way to do it, and I've begun to respond directly to people who send me this garbage. I'm hoping that they will begin to understand that when they send out mass emails, real people, who have feelings, read it. Actually, it's worked pretty well, and I had fairly productive email exchanges with both of the women who sent the referenced emails. I hope that you will do the same. Instead of just pressing the delete key, send back a note that challenges this kind of behavior. While it might be easier to just ignore it, it's important that folks get the message that this is no way to treat each other.

I think it's pretty darn easy to vent anger at a group of relatively unknown faces who are "super" or "automatic" delegates. It's hard to remember that actual, living, breathing human beings with families and feelings are on the receiving end of these awful emails. We need to speak up. There a way to express opinions without using each other as punching bags.

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