Blog Comments Sap Search Morale

A Vancouverite commenting on several blogs is having a direct impact on the search for David Koch. Postings by someone who uses the name Kathleen and Kathleen Walker display negativity that has been sapping away at the morale and optimism of the search and rescue team looking for Koch, missing since  a week ago Wednesday.

One anonymous comment on the Naked Conversations blog posting about the search:

Kathleen, give it a rest already. Your constant negative comments about this search are doing more to bring down the morale of any searchers that come through this website then anything else. How about a little encouragement for a change?

One of the searchers, using the name Lithohedron, has been responding to some of the blog comment criticisms, and he takes Walker to task on several different blogs. This comment, on Joho the Blog, comes at the end of a detailed refutation of many of her criticisms of the search and rescue team:

I am very encouraged by the fact that there are people like you who care so much about pure strangers. You have that in common with the many volunteers who have put in thousands of person-hours searching for what has become an increasingly unfortunate individual. HOWEVER, your letter is misinformed, and misguided. You base your criticism on pure opinion and perception rather than any knowledge of the facts of what is involved in a search of this magnitude.

    I would hope that your concern for the lost individual would also extend to the individuals who are spending their time, and taking on a certain element of risk in searching for him. This letter is hurtful, discouraging, and demoralizing to all of us in the SAR community.

As I understand it, a troll is by definition either anonymous, or a pseudonym.  So unless Walker turns out to be a fake name, she doesn't qualify as a troll.  But in every other respect, she fits the bill: confrontational; argumentative; championing a cause; sowing the seeds of doubt and discord.

I'm not going to repeat her complaints, nor her suggestions for activism and lobbying.  Suffice it to say that for every good idea she comes up with, there are three or four counterproductive or negative comments about those involved in the search for Koch.

It's bad enough that searchers are giving up their holiday time to cover often dangerous terrain. Do they also have to fend off online attacks of their motivations, skills and dedication?

Take the good advice, Kathleen, and give it a rest.

Update:  Kathleen dropped by the search centre on the weekend, with some doughnuts for the search and rescue squad "to make up for my attitude last week." She left a note on a blog for Karen Koch, David's sister.  An excerpt:

Karen: I just came back from David's SAR camp on Capilano road near the fish hatchery on the way to Grouse Mountain. I couldn't believe how big and well organized it was. There were SAR vehicles from Washington, Coquitlam, North Shore Search and Rescue etc.

There were only four people in the camp to greet me because everyone else, over 100 searchers and fifteen family members were out on Grouse mountain finding your brother Dave . . . .

You would have been so impressed by the setup of the SAR. It was like a big mobile army unit. The people there were so kind to me that I started to cry because I remembered how indebted to them for saving my beloved son six years ago. If I had lost my son I would be a different person today. My son's life has a price above rubies.

Comments

[shel]

Thank you for this. I could not agree more. Our site has a "delete no comments--except for smut and hate notes." A few of things that have been posted there are not constructive to say the least. If it continues, we will have to shut some down.

[Alice Marshall]

I am very sorry to hear about this. I have never done it, but I can easily believe that search and rescue is difficult and dangerous work.

[Scott]

Thanks for making this point. I wanted to say the same things but I just decided to stay away from the conflict. But your thoughts echo my own.