Guys. I think I’ve made it big. I’ve received legitimate hate mail. And it’s GLORIOUS.
Remember when last month two months ago I wrote about Sam Childers and how I didn’t so much appreciate how his vigilante-justice-humanitarian-whirlwind-media-infused-lonely-hearts-club-band was putting my life and my friends’ lives in jeopardy? Well just in case you were wondering, that debate hasn’t died down yet across the interwebz, and due to being linked to a number of bloggers and articles it’s still the highest trafficked post on this blog (although you’d be surprised the number of people routed here by searches like “kermit in toilet.”)
Despite that, was a smidgen surprised to wake up this morning and find myself with seven new comments to moderate. See, if someone’s never posted a comment before, WordPress makes you approve that person’s post, and then they have free range. I was wondering if maybe some new article posting to my blog had emerged and I’d been inundated with new voices trying to chime in on the debate.
Nope.
Just the best. hate mail. EVER.
It has everything: ALL CAPS, name calling, and – get this – A HITLER COMPARISON. In the immortal words of Blago: “It’s f*ckin’ golden!”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with people putting dissenting voices on the comments section (as you can see there are several people who believe passionately in Sam’s mission and wish people like myself would just try to see that he’s only trying to “do something”). To each their own and free speech and whatnot.
Yet, I don’t really feel so much like approving this person’s dissenting voice and allowing free range and eternal access to forever spam my comments section.
However, I will shamelessly post the comments to my blog for all to glory in. So without further ado:
Responding to the post the first time:
It is you that need to be punched not Sam! You are jealous that all you can do is sit in the US and do NOTHING to help another human being!!If you are calling him a mercenery then you are calling all police officers killers the same..geez what should we do with bad people..nothing..just let them go on killing?You are a mouse and not fit to mention Sams name..instead of writing about him why dont you for the first time in your life do something worthwhile.
Umm yup. Definitely sitting in the US. Which is why this blog is titled “Erin in Juba.” Lots o’ Juba’s in the good ol’ US of A. And golly gee, i just hate human beings. Spend pretty much each waking hour every day trying to scheme to make people miserable (Even admitted to wanting to kick kittens! Gah!). Sam is CERTAINLY just like a police officer. You know, minus the legitimacy and accountability factor. And naturally you had to bring up my rodent phobia. Cuts me deep . You’re right, definitely should realign my priorities to do something worthwhile w/ my life. Like spamming blogs with comments full of rage and Hitler references and poor grammar? Oh, wait getting ahead of myself there.
Ok. Less commentary, more comments. Go!
Responding to Bryan’s pretty respectful comment replying to one of Sam’s supporters:
You need a reality check.Get off your cozy couch and go help ..and do niot dare say a bad word against someone that is a hero.
Not really sure what assertion specifically needed a realty check (maybe countries in Africa don’t actually have laws?), but either way… you have a cozy couch? No fair, you’ve been holding out on me! Sharing is caring, Bryan. Geez.
To Sam’s supporters:
Larry Lewis:
I agree with your comment ..and may God Bless you.
Jason Torres:
Jason you are right, Sam is a great person doing a wonderful thing..and Erin I have lost all respect for what has she ever done to help anyone but put someone down that did
Wait, there was a time when you had respect for me?! DAMN. Lost another one.
ERIN GET A CLUE AND GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING FOR SOMEONE GOOD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YOUR USELESS LIFE! AND LEAVE SAM ALONE YOU ARE NOT FIT TO EVEN MENTION HIS NAME
Confused. Thought we covered this one already? Oh, ALL CAPS TIME MEANS SRSFACE TIME. Right.
SRS CAT IS SRS
Response to Mr. Kirkpatrick:
GET A CLUE YOU MADE NO DIFFERENCE BECAUSE YOU WERE A WIMP YOU WERE OF NO USE SO YOU PUT DOWN SOMEONE WHO WAS ASK YOUR\SELF THIS COULD YOU EVER PUT YOUR SELF OUT FOR ONE NIGHT TO SAVE SOMEONE ELSE HE DOES IT EVER MINUTE WHILE YOU DO WHAT IS SAFE DID YOU ALSO BACK HITLER AS YOU AND ERIN MAKE QUITE A TEAM SAM WOULD NEVER HAD ALLOWED HITLER BUT I SEE SEEMS YOU AND ERIN HAVE ISSUES OF BEING UNPRODUCTIVE NOBODYS AND GET ON SOMEONE WHO YOU ARE NOT FIT TO TIE HIS BOOTS
YESSSSSSSSSS!!!! AND WE HAVE A HITLER REFERENCE! Amazeballs. And SO FULL OF THE RIGHTEOUS CAPS LOCK OF INFALLIBLE TRUTHINESS. Because for sure disagreeing about the proper way to intervene and help people most effectively is tantamount to supervising the mass murder of about 12,000,000 people (not to mention reveling in the collateral damage of at least 50,000,000+ more deaths due to that whole “World War” thing ). Can definitely see the parallels there. So I can’t say Sam’s name and MK can’t tie his boots. Or maybe that was directed at both of us? Not sure. During this comment the punctuation union went on strke, which made understanding context hard. Well, you’re leaving us very few ways to show our devotion, sirma’am (gender ambiguity to protect anonymity)!
And to close out:
ERIN YOUR INSANE..YOUR BLOG OF SOMEONE DOING WONDERFUL THINGS MAKES ME SICK ..GET SOME HELP
Maybe I should send some paracetamol?
(Ahem, and I am insane. I don’t own it (because UNFORTUNATELY THE STORE WOULDN’T SELL ANY TO ME. But thanks for rubbing it in.))
So that’s the end of the hate and rage. Thanks, anonymous poster, for totally making my morning. Been one of those work-til-1am-then-get-up-at-6am weeks, so this totally made it all worth it.
Anyone else here reminded of DKos’s Saturday Hate-mail-a-polooza?
erininjuba 
Erin, despite your impressively upbeat attitude in this post, I know it sucks to get yelled at in all caps by someone who is so weirdly, unnecessarily, and PERSONALLY angry at you, whether it’s from some asshole’s car window during rush hour traffic, or in the comments section of your blog. I really enjoyed your post on Childers, particularly because it was followed by pretty thoughtful and intelligent points from both sides of the debate. I learned a lot from reading all of it. It really upsets me when people take this kind of thing to a personal level and infuse it with hate–to me, being personally angry at absolute strangers for their beliefs and opinions, rather than debating them with respect, is the first step down the road towards a whole world of war, hate, and terror. I hope you know that you are amazing for spending a year+ in Sudan doing culturally sensitive, respectful, humble, SUSTAINABLE work to make the world a better place!
i really appreciate this, em, i swear. but this one was SO ridic that honestly couldn’t thnk of it as anything other than funny, because seriously…. i mean, i respect a difference of opinions (and i love how much people are discussing what makes intervention/aid “right” b/c of childers still (love him or hate him he at least makes you think. and there are prominent expats wth experience n south sudan and northern uganda who will back childer’s efforts, or at least not disavow them, i’m just not one of them)), that’s one thing, but to completely disavow any sense of logic just makes me laugh. (and hitler? really? when has that ever been even close to a comparison unless you’re talkng about cambodia or rwanda or… )
also i now possess the person’s email address. imagine the terrible things i could do.
also, any time there’s fighting on the internet, my mind flashes back to this comic: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png
“Someone is WRONG on the internet!”
There are many things I love about his hate mail. The lack of punctuation. The lack of awareness of where Juba is. The lack of knowledge about what Hitler did. The all capitalization. It makes me fondly remember my days of opening mail for BK and reading the “BK crazies” who would threaten/rage against the good Senator. Good times, good times.
(What I most love about the hate mail, however, is that the writer is clearly never going to leave the US and therefore will never come in contact with you or threaten you in person. Whew)
Heh. Exactly. Yes. Yes, yes, all of that.
Dear Erin – keep up the great work. Hate mail will definitely keep coming your way. You will just have to invest in those comfortable, cozy couches, particularly the ones they sell by the roadside in Kampala and Nairobi so that you have a good place to sit and read it. I always liked those but especially since I have stopped doing anything to help and have just been running around saying bad words about “heroes”. 🙂
By the way, that was sarcasm…
if it means l keep getting hate mail this fantastic l’m surely going to have to take the next mutatu to Kampala and get me one of these couches you speak of so l can join you. and find some more heroes to say bad words about. and learn more bad words. i’ve got a lot of stuff on my to do list now it seems.
Juba, USA. That’s somewhere near Ypsilanti, Michigan, isn’t it? Or maybe niot.
Capslock hatemail = hongera on your entrance to The Big Leagues of blogging. These particular comments are just magnificent. Anyone who manages to fold in both a Hitler reference AND a “your/you’re” error (your insane what? Your insane birdhouse-dropping habit?) earns my undying fancy. It’s just too amusing to be taken seriously.
I can’t think of Sam Childers without thinking of the point in the interview when he said something along the lines of, “We rounded a corner, saw an epic throwdown, and just HAD to start shooting.” Horrifying though this sentiment is, it’s difficult to read it without picturing a Sean of the Dead-style moment, with lots of slow-motion and “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen blasting in the background. Now, I admit that in all my E. Africa tromping about, I don’t think I’ve ever actually been north of Kakamega. Is this the sort of situation you, as a development worker in South Sudan, encounter regularly? How many tribalism-fueled battles have you leaped into in the last, say, 10 days?
Exactly.
And as for the last question… Hmm… At least 50. I mean… my memory is a little fuzzy, but I’d say 50 is about right. Maybe 60.
DON’T STOP ME NOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW! HAVING A SUCH A GOOD TIME HAVING A BALL
Where’s the “headbang” emoticon when you need it? Aren’t you so glad you started on this blog thread? I was going to rant about all these idiots who don’t get off their nice couches in the US to do anything about the evils in the world but feel justified in sending you hate mail… but then I thought – ‘do we really want them to get off of their couches and go anywhere to try to do anything?’ – and since the answer to that was ‘hell no’ I figure we’re better off with them where they are. I wonder though if any of them could find South Sudan or Uganda on a really big map?
Two. Shay.