If you read The Baltimore Sun article about the four Howard County Bloggers getting together to run an on line candidate forum then you already know who Evan Coren is.
Evan is a very nice man. He introduced himself at the Glenwood Library where Restoreus.org held a candidate forum. He wasn’t interested in political idealogy he was interested in meeting people. When he introduced himself to me I was sorry I had to get home and did not have more time to spend him.
So, now I feel guilty. Not because I didn’t have time to spend with him. It is because I have a Howard County Blog and Evan has a Howard County Blog and it may have led to a bad experience on Evan’s part and I feel a little responsible.
With two Howard County Blogs readersare going to get a little confused about who is who and what is being said by whom and where and exactly when was it said. I am going to change my blog to the Howard County Maryland Blog.
Why do I feel guilty? Evan relays an unfortunate experience he had with Howard County Executive, Mr. James Robey. I am convinced it is a case of mistaken identity and that Jim Robey thought Evan was the author of this Howard County Blog. In other words Robey had to have thought Evan was ME (thus the title of this post).
Read Evan’s experience at his post here.
Evan, I am sorry if I contributed in anyway to that experience.
With that said, let me step into Evan’s shoes for a moment since I think that Robey was directing his ire toward me.
Mr. Robey was quoted in The Baltimore Sun article saying he would not prefer to participate in our online candidate forum.
“No, I’d rather show up and confront people face to face,” he said. Answering questions electronically is “not my favorite way.”
He says this despite the fact he spends late night returning emails to constituents. What is the difference? I don’t know.
To Evan’s point Mr. Robey does seemto enjoy “confront(ing) people face to face” so he must be sincere in his comments. I would hope that he gets his facts straight before confronting people because he obviously got the wrong person. I pity the next innocent person to cross Mr. Robey’s path.
It is my hope that Mr. Robey is an avid reader of the Baltimore Sun and saw the article in questions and a light bulb went off. If it did perhaps he thought, “Oh damn. I made an a@# out of myself. I owe that kid an apology.”
Let me add further that if Robey does offer an apology I am confident that Evan will provide Mr. Robey a lesson in manners and will graciously accept Mr. Robey’s apology. Evan will ask his question, and never brings up the incident again. Even though I only met Evan twice – I am sure that is the type of person he is and that is exactly how he will handle the situation. It depends of course if Robey is aware of his error and is they type of man to call Evan and offer such an apology. I am sure he has ample time to redeem himself.
As to a lesson in manners someone closer to Robey should remind him how to behave toward other people – especially during a campaign. Granted I am sure Mr. Robey thought he was headed toward a confrontation when Evan, poised with a menacing smile and out stretched hand, approached him.
Simply put, bad manners. I find it incredible that if I had the opportunity to run into Jim Robey at the barber shop (and I have) he would shove his hand in my face, refuse to listen to me, and tell me who I should vote for.
Howard County Maryland Blog 