Washing away a bad taste

Back at the start of the recent war in Lebanon I cranked out a hastily-written post called 'A difficult Lesson' about a bar fight I'd witnessed in the Philippines... and used that experience to illustrate my thoughts about what Israel should (but ultimately would probably not) be allowed to do in it's fight against Hezbollah.

Almost overnight the post 'grew legs' and was being linked around the conservative end of the blogosphere.  The piece was read on the air by several Radio talk show hosts (including Hugh Hewitt and Wide-Awake Radio's Terry Dillard) and I actually did a couple of on-air interviews. 

Within a few days the post had gone viral and had been copied into emails by a number of well-meaning people who distributed it to their entire mailing lists.

All of this attention was quite flattering, but I really didn't have a chance to enjoy it because within a few days of publishing the 'Difficult Lesson' post I started getting puzzling emails from people all over the world asking if I was the author of the post.  This seemed odd since it was published quite clearly under my name on treppenwitz. 

But the emails soon started to make sense when I realized that at least three separate people had removed my name before emailing the post to their distribution lists... and one had even added the attribution of a real Nebraska Newspaper and the byline of a fictitious retired Navy Captain named 'Dave Wilson'. 

One of the first emails of this sort that I received was from that Nebraska newspaper's editor telling me he had received hundreds of phone calls and emails asking about this non-existent Op Ed piece by 'Captain Wilson'.  He had never published such a piece and a quick google search directed him to my post on treppenwitz.

Long story short (I know, I know... one of these days I'll actually be able to use that expression honestly), by the time the emails started rolling in asking me about the essay (some actually accusing me of plagiarizing Captain Wilson!), a search using anti-plagiarism software turned up no less than 58 web sites that had published 'A Difficult Lesson' without attributing it to me!  Some had it attributed to Captain Wilson, some had it unattributed... and a few even made it appear that the site owner had written the essay!

Needless to say, I was seeing red by this time.

I've ranted in the past about the importance of providing accurate attribution for EVERYTHING we forward around the 'net, whether via our blogs or in emails to friends and colleagues... but little did I guess that I would become such a victim of people ignoring this basic responsibility.

Any pleasure/pride I might have taken in having written an essay that resonated with such a large group of people was swallowed up in my anger over having had my intellectual property stolen from me so casually.

When the war in Lebanon came to its unsatisfactory (yet predictable) conclusion, I had little taste or energy for a follow up.  Despite the fact that every single one of my predictions had come to pass... there were families here who were suffering far more than the loss of intellectual property.  It seemed petty to tell the story of my AWOL intellectual property rights... so I wrote a short 'I told you so' post and moved on.

Then a few weeks after the end of the war I got an email from a well-respected blogger I have followed for quite some time named Michael Totten.  It seems that he and Doubleday editor Adam Bellow (son of Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow) were working together on a publishing project about the war in Lebanon and wanted permission to include my essay. 

An excerpt from his email to me:

"We will publish a small book (64 pages or so) that will be sold on the Internet that tells the story of the recent war in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah. We want to tell this story by republishing the best short essays written on Lebanese and Israeli blogs. One of the articles you wrote is, in our view, one of the best and we would like to include it in the collection."

And just like that, whatever bad taste that remained in my mouth from having had my work separated from my name was suddenly washed away.  Here was a well-respected writer not only complimenting my work... but actually asking permission to republish it!

I'm bringing this up today because I just got an email from Michael saying that the book has been published.  Besides being extremely flattered to have been included in such a collection of essays, I'm honestly interested to read what else was being written during the war... by both Israeli and Lebanese bloggers. 

You see, during the fighting up north, many of my J-blogger colleagues actively sought out out their counterparts on the 'other side', as well as dissenting voices closer to home. 

I simply couldn't bring myself to do this. 

In time of war I didn't have any interest in viewing anyone 'over there' as human.  They were the enemy.  Full stop.  I was afraid that seeing the human stories from the other vantage point would make it difficult or impossible to advocate prosecuting the war to it's logical (and IMHO necessary) conclusion.  However, I promised myself that at the end of the war... whatever the outcome... I would take the time to see what else was being said. 

Now is my chance.

If any of you would be interested in acquiring a copy of this publication, here is a handy link (the collection is called "Blog Digest #1: The Hezbollah War; Edited by Michael J. Totten").

 

Here's Michael's post about it (including his introduction to the book).   I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.