Angry in the Great White North

From American Mourning: The Intimate Story of Two Families Joined by War--Torn by Beliefs, on the question of media interest in the Cindy Sheehan story (pages 139-140):

Steve Janke writes blogs from Canada from his aptly named site, "Angry in the Great White North." He followed Cindy's story like a hound on a racoon. His grasp of the situation and connections to Cindy's extended family placed him at the center of the Cindy tsunami.

"I read about Cindy and found a lot of logical and legal fallacies," Janke said. He researched some of the folks helping Cindy in Crawford and questioned why none of the affiliations had been mentioned in any mainstream articles. Were they afraid of criticizing a woman who'd lost her son, or was it that they agreed with her and wanted to legitimize her position?

"It was probably the media's fault," Janke said.

Contrast the media with the apparent interest from the public (pages 201-202):

Cindy's popularity among mainstream Americans has never been higher. But a year after she and her media consultants made their stand in Crawford, her relevance has plummeted, according to Steve Janke, a blogger at stevejanke.com who closely follows Cindy.

"I did do a piece recently on her blog, which averages five hits a day. Five?! Well, on the day I mentioned it, traffic shot up to three hundred, maybe more, but [it] seems to have returned to as close to nothing as you can get," Janke said on July 30, 2006. "That was the perfect metaphor. The media might still be chasing her, but the public, when given the chance, are ignoring her."

The book makes for fascinating reading, and I heartily recommend it. Don't worry, these are the only two places I pop up in it. But it's difficult to describe the feeling of having become part of a documented piece of American history, even such a tiny part as this. It's given me pause to consider the responsibilty that goes with running a blog. As unlikely as it is, what we bloggers write can become part of the tapestry of current events, and on a rare occasion, that contribution can be elevated to form part of the permanent historical record of those events. We can only hope that the contribution is seen as a positive one, or at the very least, not a foolish one.