What's appropriate for this blog?
Concerning my post about funneling my $600 check from the U.S. government to Amnesty International, I've received quite a bit of feedback.
Some of it is a response to my position on U.S. policy, like
"Jay, you're a dumbass. "
"The world is safer with Saddam out of power. "
"there are lots of people out there who do concur with your views"
That’s fine. I know people are polarized on these topics, and expect that any discussion would generate a lot of attention, some of it quite heated. However, it’s not really what I wanted to post about.
Some of it is a response to my decision to give that money to A.I., like
"sponsor 20 little poverty stricken palestine children with your $600 instead of donating it to an organization that hates America
"buy 600 dollars worth of fast food or grocery store gift certificates and every time you see a homeless person give them enough to buy a couple meals"
"That's an impressively selfless thing to do with such a large chunk of money."
This was my real purpose – to talk about what I see as a creative way to take action to support my principles.
Some is specifically about my decision to post this on my blog, which is hosted by Microsoft:
"Wrong forum Jay"
"I commend your courage to put this on your blog"
"You are bound to take a lot of flak for this courageous post "
"Microsoft lets you do this with their resources on their time?"
"people ... consider it to be leveraging the Microsoft megaphone for a personal political view"
This is something I’m worried about. I do want to speak out about what I believe in, but I also want to do the right thing as an employee of the company.
I’m considering creating a second, personal blog where I can talk about stuff as me, not as a rep of Microsoft. I wanted to the opinion of my readers on this, first.
If I move this topic to a personal blog, am I letting myself be bullied by people who don’t agree with me?
When I created my blog, I decided that it should include some personal content. I’m not a robot, I’m a human. I want you to see that, and to see the humanity of all of us at Microsoft. I want us to all see that Microsoft the organization is a collection of humans, with feelings, desires, and mistakes. This post is part of that plan.
Anyway… would anyone object to this sort of thing being moved to a different blog?
