Googling

Have you ever googled your name?

I used to think that one of the best things about the internet was that if there was something that you wanted the world to know - you could write about it and there it would be on the internet - forever. Whenever anyone did a search on that subject - there your article would be - for better or for worse, and no one had any control of it.

I thought that was a good thing. It started out with Peter Duffy and pit bull type dogs. He really disliked them.

He was a columnist at the Chronicle Herald, and everytime he wrote something really misinformed and ugly about them, I'd write in a letter to the editor and post what he'd said in his original column on his own page on my Charlie loves Halifax site with the heading "Peter Duffy hates dogs" - wanting to let the world know that Peter Duffy needed to be educated about dogs, and at the same time - in my mind, trying to show Peter Duffy that there was a different way to think about that breed of dogs.

And it was all on the internet and there was nothing Peter Duffy could do about it.

And I thought that was fabulous.

That was power (ful).

I've googled myself and there's some pretty distasteful and untrue stuff out there meant to try and hurt me because individuals and groups have disagreed with what I've written on this blog - and it hasn't fizzed me at all. I don't take it personally because I realize it's a by-product of writing about the subject that I do.

It never occurred to me though that there would be ramificiations for people that I write about on this blog - other than hurt feelings and lost friendships.

Should I feel bad that bad things happen to bad people because of my blog? That people find out about puppy millers or brokers, or shady dealers?

Some may call it bullying, but I have always been careful to only say things that can be verified and are truthful.

I do have a high degree of empathy though - so I do go through the blog - and if something was written years ago that doesn't really apply anymore and was written in aide of people I'm not friends with anymore - I don't have a problem with removing those tyes of posts -it's old dead history, and the world has moved on. Which it has. Old boring stories need to be deleted from time to time, which I don't mind doing.

Gooogle your name, sometimes it's interesting to see what comes up maybe one or two hits will be in this blog - that would be neat - - hopefully they'll be positiive stories!