Visitors, and a Mayor

For the first day in nearly a month, yesterday my daily page visits registered less than 100, which used to be a high reading, but of late has been rather low. Since a few entries in June having to do with the Kentucky Democratic Party, my daily page visits have shot up astronomically. The rise continued even from those numbers by late August nearly tripling on some days what had been an average number of visitors.

Something in my October 2007 archive began getting numerous hits every day, most from out of the country. Prior to these rises during this summer, my country visits had been averaging about 72% from the United States. During the last two months, that number gradually fell into the 40%-50% range on a daily basis, with a few times dipping below 39%. I spoke with another blogger, one who experiences thousands of visits a day, asking what could have caused this spike.

He explained to me that with the huge rise that came with the KDP-related entries in June, some of which no longer appear on the blog, my blog itself was found by more search engines and their search matrices using different terms which might appear in my blog. As I cover a wide range of topics here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, this made sense to me. I still do not know what it was exactly that attracted all the foreign visitors to the October 2007 archive, but I do know this. Since the close of the National Democratic Convention last week, my numbers have fallen considerably, back into the area I am more comfortable with. I haven’t taken the time to read back through all of October’s entries, but somewhere in there is the clue. The “October 2007” archive link remains my most visited page.

I know that other blogs measure their success by their number of visitors. For some, this is an income vehicle and advertising dollars are the be-all-to-end-all. Someday I’ll address my long-held aversion to advertising of any kind, one which I discussed recently when addressing the America 2000 Democratic Club in Louisville and the subject of political yard signs arose. But we’ll leave that for someday, not today.

Suffice it to say, I am content with the slow trek of visitors to and from my site. Very few of you have ever left comments, and that is fine with me. There is currently a discussion going on under one of the entries between a supporter and a detractor of a somewhat public - but not political - figure down in the Catholic heartland of Kentucky. I’ve been monitoring that conversation lest it fall over into one which I might consider injurious to one or the other parties in the discussion, or if comments are made against the person in question which might be found offensive or even malicious and prosecutable. I am hopeful the two persons in that conversation will take their discussion elsewhere, although I haven’t specifically asked them to, nor do I presently plan to. I’ve never limited the discussion on an entry, although for personal reasons, I have removed a few.

I think of myself as a great defender of the First Amendment freedoms of speech, religion, and the press. I am hopeful my beliefs are like courage and screwed to the sticking place. The discussions herein and the blog itself are testing my steely resolve and belief in that Constitutional Amendment, the First in current enumeration but the third which was considered by the Congress in 1789. Along with the nine other amendments which have come to be known as the Bill of Rights, it was ratified on December 15, 1791, with approval by the Commonwealth of Virginia, making the 75% threshold of the several states required by the Constitution for approval.

As a side note, as Kentucky was preparing for statehood, or Secession from Virginia as it was sometimes called, a discussion was taken up for ratification of all twelve of the original proposed amendments to the Constitution. Five other states had already done so. They were Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia. Kentucky, in her first month of statehood, which would have been June of 1792, joined her fellow sovereign states in ratifying not only the ten we’ve come to know, but also the original “First” and “Second” amendments as proposed.

Purely for edification and as a reminder, below is the full text of the First Amendment (ratified) of the United States Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Incidentally, today is the 20th birthday of John Tyler Hammons. You may not know who Mr. Hammons is. I’ll admit I do not know him. Besides being 20 today, he is a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul – the youngest delegate from his home state of Oklahoma. Besides that, he is a resident of Muscogee, Oklahoma, the city that gave us the term “an Okie from Muscogee.” He is a graduate of Muscogee High School where he served as Student Body President, something I did when I was in high school. Currently, he is a second year student at the University of Oklahoma.

Mr. Hammons is also the mayor of the city of Muscogee, a city of 39000 people, which is 4½ times the size of Wasilla, Alaska. Governing a city 4½ times the size of Wasilla, Alaska could, apparently, prepare Mayor Hammons for a career as Vice President of the United States. I do not know if he is a hunter, although he is a fourth generation Oklahoman and a member of the Cherokee Nation. I do not know if he is for or against anything. When I was 19, I was political, but I wasn’t really settled on any absolutes. However, being 20 and being mayor of a city 4½ times the size of Wasilla should open doors for anyone. Look at what Wasilla has given us.