Dear Mary,

Thanks so much for your wonderful letter.

I hope that it is clear from my extraction from the virtual chalkboard that the immediate accusation being addressed in the piece on my site was a claim that Alexandria Searls would throw her votes to David Simmons in the upcoming Democratic Convention.

This is a charge which she preemptively addressed for my web site before I posted the excerpt from the chalkboard and it is a charge which she denies. The fact that Alex found it necessary to address this issue preemptively is prima facie evidence that it is worthy of consideration. And her response to the piece helps to clarify the dynamics from her point of view.

I believe this interchange on my web site does make our local political processes more readily transparent. Does it make our local political processes more accountable? I will leave that for my readers to decide and will be happy to hear from them.

As you know, the majority of comments on the Virtual Community Chalkboard are anonymous. In my mind, this does not make them less worthy of being addressed when questions raised on the chalkboard are being simultaneously being considered in other venues.

The comments which you refer to in your letter were placed on my web site to elicit publically attributable responses to the issues raised. They were also placed there to elicit publically attributable comments about the use of the chalkboard, political and otherwise, itself.

I think you have made yourself very clear about the use of the chalkboard but have failed to address the issues raised in the messages from Alexandria Searls and from the comments on the chalkboard.

Like you, I admire all of the candidates who are running for the Democratic nomination for Charlottesville's City Council and their willingness to serve our community. I also deeply admire the Democrats for Change and their stalwart effort to bring important community issues to the fore.

Unlike yourself, I do not view the discussion of preemptive strikes and rumors of backroom deals as the seamy side of political discourse.

So naturally, I will be delighted to accept your challenge to a duel at twenty paces in front of the Nook with water guns - once warmer weather sets in.

My very very best.

George Loper