Steve West, co-host of Live & Local on WKVT 1490, wrote this reaction to the attack on John Odum…

…I’m reading a vitriolic screed by a man defending his own anti-racism credentials (which have not been questioned), slamming the character of Mr. Odum (who he does not know), and implying that Mr. Odum’s employer should put a tighter leash on him.

No matter what the details of this discussion……….that’s just not cool.

Any hope of keeping the “moral high ground” that SVR and Mr. Naylor had prior to this phenomenon is gone. He has displayed some fairly childish “schoolyard bully” behaviors, and has entirely alienated at least one potential comrade to the SVR cause……….meaning me.

Even if Odum’s posting was wildly off base and without merit……………the response was, dare I say, nasty and personal, and only tangentially addressed the issue. At this point, frankly, I’m pretty tired of the whole thing already. But now, today, John Odum says that, in order to keep the peace at his workplace, he is stepping down from GMD, where he has helped to add intelligence, humor, and energy to the political dialogue in Vermont.

And that’s just not right.

And to Professor Naylor and others of like mind at SVR, I say……….right or wrong, I’ll stick by John Odum on this one. He has shown himself to be, in my experience, intellectually honest and well-intended. I cannot say the same of the responses I’ve read from SVR.

And now I, for one, will redirect my attention to more immediate and measurable threats, while hoping that Odum reconsiders.

Well said, Steve. And thanks for saying it.