| Reply to Dwight Jurgens |
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| By Cody Heitschmidt | |
| Monday, 26 May 2008 | |
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 29 May 2008 ) |
I still respect his writing abilities. I
think Mitchell here at whatsuphutch .com maybe the only other more
talented writer in Hutch. Dwight without a doubt did something right as
a father as well. I personally know one of his daughters and she is one
of my favorite people in the world, people like that don't come from
poor parents.
Anyhow, when whatsuphutch.com
launched last Friday, I tried to make a moderate peace offering as well
as attempted to solicit the thoughts/criticism that I knew I would get
and I sent Dwight and email with a link to whatsuphutch.com.
Dwight
instantly flipped into Dwight mode and blasted the site, I honestly
don't know if he means to be a jerk or it's just his way, but it's the
only trick he has in his bag. His writing is incredibly entertaining
and does a phenomenal job of getting a few anonymous commenter's to
jump into discussions and preach to all of us why they are exactly and
completely right and everyone else is exactly and completely wrong. The
reason Dwight's comments are so negative about every thing very simply
goes back to a birds of a feather principle. Dwight chooses to call
people "country-clubbers" and refer to folks who give their time to get
involved in community projects as "the same pool of suspects that gave
you the tax-funded Salt Museum, the
20/20 Growth Coalition and the "artwork" on the Roundabout" (Quote
from Jurgens) because it
gets a rise, it doesn't inform, it doesn't assist any type of progress, it
just gets his covey of commenters in a big fuss for a day or 2 and then
it dies off and he goes to bashing pitbulls for the next confrontation
to arise.
You
know, it has always got him a few loyal readers and some heated
debates on his site that led to.... well absolutely nothing. They have
never led to anything... The whole entire site is a I am right and You
are Wrong forum, and nothing in any form of progress has ever come from
it. Ever. Not good information, not change, nothing. A few people have
got on there and argued but nobody ever said..."Hey we have an issue in
our community here, let's figure out a good solution and go after it
together. And.. They never will. Because Dwight won't give them a
chance, he won't let anything ever be received as a good idea unless it
is his idea. He will also blast anything he disagrees with instead of
any type of a compromise or peace offering.
The
crappy part about the whole deal is he is still holding on to the
thought of being a news hound. He wants to break news and then tell you
everything that everybody did wrong in the story and how it should have
been handled and how Allen Fee being a member of Prairie Dunes makes
him a pompous snob. He is the professional so I won't completely
judge... that's just not my type of news... That commentary is great,
just not if you are claiming to be a news source.
Honestly
this is what I think, Dwight is a good guy at heart. He really isn't
near as much of a hater as his writing professes. His main flaw in the
whole thing is he doesn't realize the complete insignificance of what
he is doing because the perception of the community is that he is a
hater. He bashes things, just like Limbaugh and O'Reilly, you have no chance in his eyes unless you are in line with him.
Whatsuphutch.com is not "a Chamber of Commerce-lite where you can't stray
from the topic or be mean to each other when and if there's a heated
debate"(Quote
from Jurgens), never will be! In fact we are the only site in town
allowing anyone to publish a community blog with the ability to start a
conversation of their choice.
We will moderate those...? absolutely we
want people of all ages on here and just like anyone, including Dwight
Jurgens, who has a public access website, some moderating has to be
done when public posting is allowed. Dwight Jurgens holds his comments
until he has time do what he wants to with them and he wants to degrade
the way we do things with our commenting process?? Whatsuphutch.com is
not about "everything around us is just great and sweet and nice"
(Quote from Jurgens). We will tackle issues we have issue with, but our
form off tackling will not be sitting on our ass bitching about
everything we don't agree with and then dropping it while we scoop out
the next person who we should insult and laugh at. It will be, "Here
are the flaws we see, here is a couple of options and please let us
know how we can help." Kinda funny how our addressing the Salt Museum
in that manner lead to a great informative discussion with the
Executive Director that is gonna lead to a public forum about the
issue. Dwight's last decent space concerning the Underground Salt
Museum was... Oh wait, written by Dan Deming.
Dwight
mixes up my words about attending a Young Professionals event if you
don't have anything else to do. The events are fun, it's open to
everyone and it's something to do in an environment where no one will
bash you verbally for speaking your mind. Yeah guess I am a jerk for
offering it as an option. I still think anyone that wants should attend
them. here's the calendar...
I
have really come to learn that Dwight relies on the one trick he has of
grumpy old man that hates everything, thinks nothing will get better,
and will go to any extreme regardless of feelings or any justification
at all to get a rise. Sounds a lot like Rush Limbaugh huh?? Lets over
dramatize, accentuate the negative and get our followers all worked up
in a tissy. And hey its ok as long as we bash traditional media and consider ourselves a better media choice right??
I
really used to respect the guy and defended him hard against people
that told me different. I learned my lesson the hard way and this will
be the last mention of him you ever get from me.
Oh he also said... "It's busy and garish and when you call it up you'll wonder why the Las Vegas Strip vomited its crassness all over your monitor"
(Quote
from Jurgens) about the design of www.whatsuphutch.com . I just don't get it, my wife
put her heart and soul into designing something we all thought was
cool in an attempt to really no kidding do somehting neat for this
town. Actually make it just a little bit better. Something that has
zero to do with Dwight Jurgens. Something that could never-ever hurt Diwght Jurgens, why does he have to be a jerk about it. He insulted my wife's abilities the first time I
lost all repect for him too. I promise you last time I will ever mention him on here.
Didn't your momma teach you to share? Share us.
Users' Comments (11) |
 05-26-2008 23:50, , Guest Let me first say that your wife has every right to be proud. This site is "cool". It's also friendly and fair. IMHO, you couldn't hope for a better combination. I'm not familiar with Dwight but after reading your post here, I googled and read his column about this site and you on his site. You were fair in your assessment of his writing ability. You were generous by elaborating on his strength as a good parent and in other areas. You were scrupulously honest and principled when you openly acknowledged your differences with him in the past were on a personal level. It's been a lot of years since I lived in Hutchinson. We still visit the four generations of my family who live there. Both my hubby and I come from folks who worked the land - farmer's. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather homesteaded in Kansas shortly after the Civil War. His people were Mennonites who came to the land outside of Halstead in the 1800's and farmed. They built up the land from nothing, year after year, decade after decade. With their backs and with their brains. We both come from a culture of man against nature. I've never understood why people do mean-spirited things to others. I've never understood why people say mean-spirited things to or about others. I don't get it either. I never have. 05-27-2008 05:28, , Guest Anyway ... I'd like to apologize for not recognizing your email as a "moderate peace offering." I'm sincere about that -- I honestly thought it was the result of me still being on some sort of mass-mailing email list of yours, and you just forgot to take my address off before you sent something out. Given our history, and my own failed attempts at extending a "moderate peace offering" perhaps you can understand why I failed to recognize your email and link for what it was. And, again, I apologize for that. Beyond that, however, I'm not apologizing for much else ... although I'll tell you after reading what I wrote and before clicking on the "send" button, I realized my reaction to the design of this site was criticism of Tamara. And I'll admit I hesitated -- Tamara is a gifted and talented designer and as nice a person as I've ever met in Hutch ... and without her (and your) contributions in the early going, The Effort may not be in existence today. I've said so many times, in public, on my website, in personal conversations. But with the launching of two websites, both soliciting opinions of others, you have entered the pubic arena ... and like it or not, you're going to draw criticism ... some of it in private conversations by people snickering behind your back, some of it in public by people who jot down their objections in a letter-to-the-editor, on a local website, or in an email to you, which you will then have to decide whether to publish. As far as your personal attacks, I'll just say this: your "nobody's right; nobody's wrong" philosophy is, in my view, tantamont to the touchy-feely liberal stance that pervades many of our youth sports programs today ... in which they don't believe in keeping score and everyone gets a trophy ... that way no one's feelings get hurt and everyone's a winner. Why bother? Thanks for the kind words regarding whatever writing skills I possess, and I appreciate your reference to my daughter -- she's one of my favorite people, too. And as far as Allen Fee ... Geesshhhh ... you and your friends need to get over it. As I said in my respose to your "moderate peace-offering" email announcing your new site, I wish you all the luck in the world with it. And I mean that. Some of my own readers have wondered why I continually talk about the Matt and Arock Show when (they believe) I don't like it. The answer is, I support any new effort to join the public debate. My goal is not to attain progress or make change or accomplish improvement -- I'll leave that to folks involved in enacting public policy. My goal is to simply get it all on the table ... so people can look at it, smell it, endorse it, criticize it, feel it and -- if the moon and stars are properly aligned -- react to it ... in whatever manner they choose. And it doesn't matter to me whether it gets there through The Hutch News, Matt and Arock, Codytalks.com or WhatsupHutch? It's the message, not the messenger, that's important and I sincerely hope you're as successful as you want to be in joining the ongoing debate. Best of luck. 05-27-2008 08:15, , Guest It's ok though because after he did it... He said: "Son, if you are gonna walk in the streets somebody is gonna run you over with a big truck." Boy, I learned a lot from that nice old man looking after me. 05-27-2008 11:40, , Guest Society as a whole needs more civil discussion (which he seems to sneer at) and fewer shrill, absolutist polemicists spouting off. 05-31-2008 01:57, , Guest You see...I picture all of your writings, topics, debates and interests on a huge conference table with imported silky linens and many interesting folks gathered around in awe. I see my stuff on an old rusted, wobbly TV tray from the 60's...setting in an alley soaked with cat urine. I want to kick my myspace teenager off the computer more ofter and spend some time with YOU. Congratulations on your GOOD STUFF. MORE GOOD STUFF!!! MORE GOOD STUFF!!! wedontknow watitiz...butitwazreallygood stuff) THANKS, solo 06-10-2008 08:41, , Guest 06-11-2008 17:06, , Guest 06-12-2008 08:55, , Guest Thanks for the feedback... The content is awesome I agree, personally we are really happy with the look and will stick with it. We do honestly appreciate the feedback and realize design is always subjective. Hopeful it doesn't burn your eyes and make you stop reading. lol... Keep the comments coming. 06-18-2008 14:51, , Guest I commend your forum both here and on codytalks. I implore you to be impassioned about what you believe in and encourage your continued faith in Hutchinson as a community. Keep on keeping on.... 06-27-2008 18:09, , Guest Dwight, I hope you are having fun in life and not just running around hating... Sure seems like you have a lot of hate in ya!! |
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