R-E-S-P-E-C-T

When I was a young girl, I read a lot. All the time. We didn't have a library close by, so while I was in elementary school, there was a Bookmobile that would come every few weeks. I would be so excited to climb aboard to exchange all the previously read books for new exciting titles.

So I've always been rather bookish.

I also loved to write. My favourite part of grade 2 was completing our "news" books every Monday. We would detail the events of the weekend, and complete it with illustrations. I wasn't superb with the art work, but to me, the weaving together of the words into a story, crafting descriptions of an event -- that was the artistry.

I didn't talk much either. I was a VERY quiet one.

But give me a pen or pencil and paper, and I could sit for hours. Scribbling away, the ideas coming up like popcorn in a popper. The stories that filled my mind spilled onto the pages with such ease. The words on the paper, they were my voice.

And today, the words on the screen are my voice. I am not a professional writer by any means. I never even ventured in that direction during school -- I was a science major. You can't and shouldn't be so fancy with data. Just the facts. In biz school there was certainly more opportunity to be "creative" with reports, but it was always in the name of efficiency. No sentence should be longer than ten words. I could whip up a business letter, memo, resume, so easily at the drop of a hat. But real creativity was lacking.

After seizing the opportunity to stay home with the kidlets for a while, this "new" means of communication known as the blog, provided me with the perfect solution to keep my sleep-deprived mommy brain active ... and opened up a brand new community for me at the same time. Reading and writing, through blogging - mommy-blogging, a wave was sweeping the blogosphere, and I was a part of it.

But recently I`ve read about some disturbing incidents in the world of the blog. Over at the talented Tara`s, there was outright copying of some of her posts; and my girlfriend Kelly, the erudite journalist a.k.a. Don Mills Diva was slammed in a most unprofessional manner. Nothing that a little link here or full attribution there, couldn`t have fixed. They are none too happy. And neither am I.

I cannot imagine if someone lifted or misrepresented my words, my thoughts ... my voice. Sure, this is public, and I write about silly things... but I also write about intensely personal matters. And those posts seem to be the ones that speak out the most and touch others out there. Those that I write from my heart.

Although I don`t have near the numbers of readers that these ladies or many other thousands of blogs out there have, if my voice were taken and manipulated, if my words were taken and misrepresented as someone else`s ... there`s only one word that I can think of - violation.

So I am joining another wave, this wave that announces that those of us who blog, whoever we may be, who blog for whatever reason, about whatever we choose to blog about - we deserve, in fact, we DEMAND respect.

Why don`t you pick up Kelly`s ``fackin`radical button`` and join us...