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Reply to Dwight Jurgens

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Reply to Dwight Jurgens

By Cody Heitschmidt

Monday, 26 May 2008

Dwight Jurgens and I have a history, it's not anyones business but mine and Dwight's and one or two other people's so I won't go into it much here. At one time I respected him as a person and a writer. Since then because of his actions...

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.

Comments (10)

1. 27-05-2008 04:50

Cody,

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.