WINNEMUCCA — Over the last couple of months close friends have approached me with some concerns about SPJ.  They see me working hard to build the site into a credible source for community information, but they fear my efforts are for naught because I allow anonymous comments.

Drop that section, they have advised.

I will acknowledge the comment section of SPJ may appear harsh, but that mostly stems from the frustration people feel with their elected leaders and other employees of the government.

In my experience people feel powerless to effect change, they feel no one’s listening, and they lack a voice in the process. The comment section gives them a place to voice those frustrations.

Yes, occasionally it’s the place people lash out at the folks they’re mad at --  leading to some pretty mean comments.

If you require real names, these friends of mine have advised, it will cut down on all that meanness.

The fact is requiring real names only assures few will comment because most people are afraid of the retribution that would follow the disclosure of his/her real name.

I know a little bit about retribution because I put my name on everything I write.

Sometimes that retribution involves cutting me off from information. Occasionally, un-kind things are said to me, but I can live with that.

The worst are the politicians who dispatch their wives out into the communtiy to salvage their husband’s credibility at the expense of mine.  This is primarily the realm of the bourgeois where backstabbing is an art.

If you want to do something to cut down on meanness in the community, you'd make bourgeois wives get real jobs. 

But I digress.

Worse, some would lose their jobs for exercising their free speech rights.  That wouldn’t be the official reason, something would be made up for that, but they’d be without employment just the same.

Let’s tell the truth and shame the devil, the only reason politicians and government leaders want the real names of  commenters is so they know who to be mad at.

At their very essence, they have no respect for free speech -- other than their own.

I would go so far as to say we’re a country of people with no respect for free speech -- unless it’s for people who agree with us.  People who disagree are stupid, right?

The difference is politicians and government leaders are powerful, and they’re in a position to use that power against the very people they’re supposed to be serving.

As long as there’s retribution, there’s no free speech.  Requiring a real name be attached to the comment is the same as cutting off the free speech of my readers.

I’m all about free speech, so I’ll continue to allow anonymous comments.  I don’t see it’s any more damaging to my credibility than the whisper campaigns of the bourgeois wives.

The good news is there won’t be quiz.  If you don’t like the fact the comments are anonymous, don’t read them.