The "Third Estate" refers to the French National Assembly and how members from the Third Estate were seated on the left with members of the First Estate sitting on the right. From this, we get our terms for "left wing" and "right wing." The Third Estate Sunday Review is left wing.
We are five college students in a journalism program. We will write collectively so if you find something humorous, it's all of us. If you find something that pisses you off, it's all of us.
Our e-mail address is posted (thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com); however we will not be responding to e-mail. We may publish your e-mail if you note that you'd like to be published.
We are members of The Common Ills community and thank The Common Ills (http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/) for all the help given in setting up this blog and in inspiring it. We gladly and proudly join members like Folding Star of A Winding Road (http://awindingroad.blogspot.com/) and Rebecca Winters of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude (http://sexandpoliticsandscreedsandattitude.blogspot.com/) in attempting to add to the dialogue.
The Common Ills is always stressing the need for more voices and we agree.
The left needs to be heard or our country will continue to tilt further rightward.
You may not like everything you read here but hopefully you'll find something to make you think.
And hopefully when you see some weak Democrat on TV trying to accommodate the American Taliban, you'll hesitate to say "they're leftists" because you'll realize that they are nothing of the sort.
Nor are we the defining point for the left. There are other left voices that are to the right of us and others that are to the left of us. We wish them all well and hope they are heard. Only by each of us engaging in a dialogue do we get a participatory democracy.
Posts will be written in long hand and ideally shuffled around between the five of us. We will alternate the typing of the posts so that it doesn't fall on one person. Whoever is typing from our edited copy should be cut some slack because they may have to decipher multiple notes, cross outs and comments.
We are not grammarians and decided against attempting to get a faculty advisor to work on our copy. Mistakes will happen. If you get your thrills from finding typos, we aim to please.
But mainly we aim to point out that the web was not created so that a few voices could dominate. As some voices on the left have attempted to shut down discussion (and only relented in the face of popular outrage), we've grown more and more distressed to see bloggers we once respected turn into the Cokie Roberts of our set.
CJR's Campaign Desk has turned their Blog Report into a gossip column for paid journalists and overexposed bloggers. That's another reason that we've made the decision to blog.
It amazes us that a person like Patricia J. Williams who writes for The Nation and teaches at Columbia can go on The Majority Report and admit to doubts or not knowing everything but certain bloggers feel the need to act as though they're instant experts on everything. (Recipe: Toss out issue and just add water -- or is that ego?)
When someone as highly educated and informed as Williams can remain "a voice," it is puzzling that certain bloggers want to present themselves as "the voice."
Success, such as it is, appears to have gone to a few people's heads.
We're assholes here, not experts. Feel free to disagree with anything you read.
But the web was not created so that two bloggers could dominate the discussion. While noting their past achievements, the new tone that's creeped in has also been noted. Anyone who calls themselves a blogger and states that Ohio doesn't matter should do so in a non "last word" kind of way. Instead, on that issue or many others, certain bloggers are attempting to shut down the debate and urge us to march along behind them. (Or maybe march along carrying them propped up on our shoulders?)
We're bothered by the "party line" on Simon Rosenberg that some in the blog world are attempting to enforce. Rosenberg's stance on the war, attitude towards Hugo Chavez, remarks about liberals in this country and social programs are distressing.
The need to astroturf the net with leaflets endorsing Rosenberg ("he's young!") is distressing.
The Third Estate Sunday Review accepts no advertising nor monies for endorsement. We do not track visitors and have no interest in spying on you.
Our interest is in adding to the discussion. That other voices seem now geared towards shutting down the debate is something we should all fight against.
We are also bothered by the fact that the few voices who dominate are male and white. Our five members include various races and ethnicities as well as both genders.
We agree with the stance of The Common Ills regarding self-promotion: we will not engage in it. We will not seek nominations for web awards or urge readers to go there and "Vote for us!"
We certainly would not allow anyone to post ways to rig the vote -- an undemocratic notion that should give everyone pause.
Nor will you find us popping up on TV or radio. Enough blowhards already exist in that format and far too many bloggers are turning into Cokie Roberts (as noted previously). We have no interest in responding to queries from the press. (Yes, that means you, CJR's Campaign Desk.)
You want to know where we stand? Read our Sunday Review. If we're unable to be clear here, we have little hope of clarity in another medium.
Regarding links, we have no interest in creating a huge sidebar of links that no one's ever going to be able to get through. We will link to any member of The Common Ills community that we are aware of and to The Common Ills itself.
One of us has a brother who had a brief blogging career. From him, we've learned that many times a "tit for tat" arrangement can arise: link to me and I'll link to you! We're not interested in that. Anyone who chooses to link to us is welcome to do so but you will not be linked to because you have linked to us.
We're currently debating whether or not to highlight organizations that we support.
We're not interested in being "polite." There's been quite enough self-censorship in a medium that was supposed to promote free speech.
If reading the above makes you uncomfortable, perhaps it's time you took a long look in the mirror and did a self-inventory. If you're excited by what we're saying, glad to have you on board.
The "trip" may be short lived. Ideally, we'd like to continue it while we finish our studies. After that, we'll either hand it off to the next class of students interested or else the Third Estate Sunday Review will retire. Should it continue, the next group would determine the interests and points of view and should not be held accountable for statements this group has made.
We do not support the buying and selling of human beings so we will not allow comments to this post. Anyone interested in finding hookers from the third world can do so elsewhere on the web.
Those who allow posting to their blogs should decide whether they feel penis enlargment, Asian hookers and other things that pop up repeatedly in comments are helpful or hurtful to their blog and to society.
Our language policy? We'll speak the way college students speak. We may remember to give a heads up, we may not. What certain people find objectionable may be second nature to us.
Besides The Common Ills, Kat of Kat's Korner has also been helpful and we thank her for her assistance.
If this excites you, we encourage you to get blogging and make your own voice heard. If this dismays you, that's all the more reason for you to start a blog. Our favorite college prof says blogging is for this decade what screenplays were for the nineties: everyone's doing it. So make your voice heard. It's your country, start participating in it.