February certainly kicked off with mid-winter excitement locally.
The first week of this year's second month brought Metro Detroit a foot and a half of snow, a viral news story and a feel-good finale -- mostly.
From the perspective of online reporting, editing and comment moderation, the newsy week put a full range of Shakespearean drama on view: joy and regret, generosity and envy, compassion and bitterness.
People behaving nobly dominate the stage:
- Bill Laintner and Ryan Garza of the Free Press introduced us to long-haul commuter James Robertson, who's now well-known.
- Their paper devoted resources for 1,900 words, 14 photos and a video to show the impact of public transportation gaps on an individual and on a region.
- "I can't imagine not working," Robertson, a 56-year-old plastics factory machine operator, tells the reporter. He also speaks of "faith" and "determination." Five days after the Freep's front-page package, ABC honors him as "Person of the Week."
- "I can't drive past him," says Blake Pollock, a 47-year-old Rochester banker who befriended Robertson after seeing him walking nightly to catch a bus at Somerset Collection in Troy. Pollock now is part of a team that will help Robertson manage a windfall of global donations.
- A younger player, 19-year-old Evan Leedy, shows that any person "can make a difference,” as he put it in one of dozens of interviews as the creator of an epic GoFundMe campaign to help Robertson. It's above $342,000, exactly one week after starting. "A lot of younger people and fellow students think they can’t make a difference until they get out of college. But I did this all from my phone," Leedy says.
Lots to feel good about, right?
Deadline reader Haley Barnes thinks so. "This makes me so happy that people still have compassion nowadays," she posts Friday on our Facebook page. Cindy Wiegand of Dearborn agrees: "Just love this story."
And yet . . .
It's never all honey and hugs. The same technology that allows worldwide donations to a stranger also makes it easy to snipe, gripe and swipe at strangers. Haters attack healers.
"The comments people post are horrible. Do they have to stay?" one of Evan Leedy's parents asked Deadline in a direct message Thursday.
The nastiest were deleted, as others had been earlier and as more are when seen.
A few readers question Robertson's level of need in comparison to "single moms with starving children," as one man says Friday. Others suggest Leedy will benefit. Thankfully, almost no racist comments tarnished our site or social media feeds.
These are among milder observations still online:
- "Sucks for everyone else worse off them him with no recognition and no help!"
- "Educate me how can a grown man not figure out how to get a car for ten years. . . . You people got scammed."
- "In the ten years he was walking, he didn't think to buy a bike or scooter? A guy at my work bought a older car for $300 and has been driving it for over a year!"
- "They set up a management council to manage his money for him. How insulting. Hey, thanks suburban kid for giving me this money but not assuming I can use it responsibly."
- "If someone has become so incapable of doing for themselves or has refused notoriety and charity for a long time, even when family, friends or colleagues could have helped over years. . . . WHY should they expect to be 'bailed out' in life?"
- "This is ridiculous. Why would people continue to donate after more than enough money was raised for a car?! Suburban Ford donated a car after $300,000 was raised -- all a publicity stunt exploiting Mr. Robertson. Fools. Guess people have too much money."
- "What was the intent -- to buy him a Bentley?! Once the fund reached, say, the cost of the car he was later given, then it should have been cut off. And now that he has been given a free car, the money should be returned."
To be clear, we welcome frank comments and robust debate to keep the "active" in interactive media.
But the sprint from front page to six-figure donations and a 2015 Taurus isn't a TV game show. It's a spontaneous, unscripted drama with ordinary people and real emotions.
James Robertson, Evan Leedy and Blake Pollock aren't star athletes, actors, politicians or media celebrities. Circumstances put them in public view, but that needn't be a free-fire zone for personal attacks on integrity or decisions about where to work and how to get there.
The saga of "walking man" and the generosity he inspires is almost entirely uplifting, no doubt about it. But under the glow are small shadows from click-and-post blurting.
Thanks to those who post here thoughtfully and constructively -- and who know how to debate, not degrade.
