I completely agree with Gavin, Kathy, and Mark Steyn.
Having written professionally for a number of years, I also blogged anonymously.
I was scared that I would be harassed at work (or worse) for having "controversial" opinions. So, I published a lot of articles in "mainstream" publications under my own name, and saved my more raucous, obnoxious, super-Jewy stuff for my anonymous blog.
Then, some evil, anonymous and cowardly twerp, sitting at a computer somewhere in the world made a comment on my blog that was mildly threatening. An 'I know who you are' kind of thing, kind of threatening to 'expose' me. It freaked me out, despite the fact that I was becoming less and less comfortable with anonymity.
Shortly after that, Andrew Breitbart died suddenly of a heart attack. I remember the exact moment when I read about his death and decided right then and there that I was not going to be scared anymore of putting my own name to everything I write. Within a week or so, I had closed the anonymous blog, and started a brand new one with my own name on the masthead, front and centre.
That was also my way of telling that anonymous troll to shove it up his (or her-who knows) ass.
As Gavin, Kathy and Mark say-if you don't put your name on it, you have no skin in the game.
I have been passed over for many opportunities because my views are not mainstream. I've been eased out of jobs, rejected for others, and even asked off-record questions at interviews about my ability to "get along" with 'people of diverse backgrounds'.
But the bottom line for me is that it's all worth it.
At the end of the day, I could not live with myself if my children thought that I was a coward.
I could not live with myself if I did not pass on the lesson to them that it is critical to stand up for what you believe in, put your name to it and be counted. For me, this is a critical, existential issue as a mother, as a Jew and as a citizen of a democracy.
The people that I have met, either on line, or in person, as a result of being myself, and sharing my ideas are individuals of the finest character and quality-they get it. Without putting my name to my thoughts, I would not be privileged to walk in their company-I wouldn't deserve it.
I include in this group Kathy, Arnie, scaramouche, Kate, Ezra, and of course, the great Mark Steyn, PBUH, ULULULU.
It is worth all the risk to be associated with my fellow travellers and to know that I fought back-that I did what I could. I can tell my children with complete confidence that just as I fought, they can and must, too. That is my personal example. I'm walking the walk.
My fellow warriors and I certainly don't agree on everything, and we come from very different background, but we all share a fundamental commitment to freedom and an absolute commitment to freedom of speech. And that's really what separates the wheat from the chaff.
And in fact, putting my name to everything has changed nothing.
This is why it is all the more infuriating for the multitudes of anonymous warriors to pontificate incessantly, or to criticize those of us who have skin in the game.
That takes a lot of chutzpah. And chutzpah, cowardice and a generally morose inclination are probably the only thing that these cowardly imbeciles possess in surplus.
