Dear Mr.” Gatemouth”:
I have chosen to go this public route (open letter) because some folks I do respect strongly requested that you and I end our long public blog-feud. Thus I invite you to meet me to initiate a discussion as to how we could totally resolve this. I am willing to invite five other Room Eight colleagues (Ben Smith, Gur Tsbar, Judge Boyajian, Larry Littlefield and Vincent Nunes) to such an event (meeting): as both observers and participants. I will bring a couple people as my witness (between Darryl Smart, Pam Miller, Ernie Skinner or Wellington Sharpe). You probably know them all since they are longtime political activists in the Brooklyn political theater.
I leave the venue and time to you. I leave all the other arrangements and particulars to the rest of you. I have no other motive than to end this silly feud. I posit no threats or sinister ultimatums. I offer my good faith and credibility.
I am not trying to stop you from opening up your own blog site: on the contrary. I think it is a great idea. I also think you should still link to Room Eight while you do your thing; mainly because many of your followers still come here (and will continue to even after you leave). It’s about maximizing the effect, outcomes, possibilities and viewership/readership.
I choose to do this mainly because I have always engaged folks politically. It’s part of my political philosophy and overview. I am not one to shy away from folks I find “troublesome”. I still think you have a lot of personal issues to deal with, but I leave that for you, your family, your relatives and social friends to resolve. I am no shrink.
And yet I do find you to be one of NYC’s best political analysts (I don’t count myself even in the top hundred in this regard). As such I would prefer to engage you rather than go after you with a lead pipe, baseball bat, vicious pen or malicious typewriter. I have openly and publicly stated that you should share your political wisdom on the New York One television station (and beyond). I also think that your political acumen places you really high up on the analytical chain. And BTW: I definitely do not agree with many of your political positions.
If you see fit to respond to this then let’s make it happen before the end of summer. If not I will continue to hit back at you every time I perceive you have hit at me. That’s the natural boxer within me. The choice is now yours.
Hopefully,
Rock HEJ Hackshaw.
(Stay tuned-in folks).