More McHenry County Blog

Here are the other comments and my replies:

Cal,

My daughter is a member of the CL Junior Rowing Team. If you really mean it, remove the Greater Chicago Juniors Rowing Championship photos from all but the GCJRC article and articles about the CL Juniors Rowing Team.

Since the Greater Chicago Junior Rowing Championship, every article you've written about the Gay Games contains rowing pictures from the GCJRC showing participants (under the age of 18) and their families. You could have used other photos of the lake or photos from other sites to show rowing, but you didn't. I cried when I saw those photos attached to non-relevant articles and realized how you took something so innocent, so beautiful and twisted it to suit your needs. Even the article on the GCJRC held comments and comparisons to the Gay Games. You couldn't enjoy the day for what it was. You had to create controversy. The negativity has spread in our community and innocent kids are paying the price.

My daughter and her teammates have dealt with broken glass placed from the boat area to the launch area, (They wear sandals when transporting the boats to the water.) people calling them "faggots" when they're training and dog feces spread on the lock of the boatyard gate.

People read blogs without logging-in or posting. Some anti-gay lurkers actively look for these kinds of postings as validation for their actions. In their minds you're saying it's, "Okay."

THAT'S why I'm so upset with you and Lori Phelps. Both of you are linking the CL Juniors Rowing Team & the GCJRC with the Gay Games, when there's absolutely no connection what-so-ever. You're misleading readers for your own purpose and innocent kids are being hurt. By connecting the two groups thru “guilt by linkage" and posting GCJRC photos with GG articles, both of you are placing targets on my 15 year old daughter and her 14-17 year old teammates.

Cal, how would you feel if your son was targeted in such same manner?
Lori, how would you feel if it was your daughter being hurt?

By all means exercise your freedom of speech. But do it in a responsible manner.
My grandpa used to say, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
# posted by Kat : 9:54 PM

Kat-

I believe I have shown that the Crystal Lake Rowing Club's application for a city hotel tax subsidy used the high school regatta as a front for the Gay Games. The fact that the CLRC has not responded to my email, as I pointed out in that article, is a strong statement in itself.

The CLRC obviously knew that the Gay Games wanted to come to Crystal Lake before its hotel tax subsidy application was submitted, as I have fully documented, but refused to put that in its application of possible future events, while mentioning the absurd suggestion that Crystal Lake could host the events of the 2016 Olympics.

That is where the linkage between the two regatta exists.

If you are unwilling to acknowledge that from what I have published, I guess we are on completely different wave lengths.

I am sorry if my use of photos caused you pain; there certainly was no such intent on my part.

The photos of the teen regatta are the only ones I have of a regatta because it is the only regatta that I have ever seen.

Using them to show what a rowing regatta looks seems reasonable to me.

I hope you were pleased with the two stories I wrote about the teen regatta on Palm Sunday and the Monday after--the only ones I have seen anywhere, despite the CLRC's for that regata in its hotel tax subsidy application.

These could not have been responsibly written without putting them into the political advocacy context that the CLRC, the park board, city council and village board has inflicted upon our community.

Certainly, I did nothing to bring the Gay Games to Crystal Lake.

If you take offense at the association that the leaders of the CLRC made with the Gay Games and the praise those leaders have received for bringing this political statement to Crystal Lake, it is they you should approach.

Rowing would just be rowing had they not sought to bring the Gay Games rowing regatta, which, according to the state Gay Games state subsidy application, otherwise would have apparently been held on the Chicago River.

If anyone has "twisted" something to meet their "needs," as you put it, it is the leaders of the CLRC using the teen regatta as leverage to bring the Gay Games to Crystal Lake.

I hope your daughter and the other local teens are successful in winning a college scholarship out of their rowing.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 12:02 AM

Cal,

You stubborn man, I'm not talking about the masters rowing club, I'm talking about KIDS!
You're putting KIDS photos on articles about Gay Games.
WHERE IS YOUR BRAIN?

YOU are the one that decided to link the juniors with Gay Games.

What the rowing club does has nothing to do with YOU linking the Juniors Team to Gay Games. You are the one that will not admit it's wrong to put pictures of minors (people under the age of 18) on an article about a controvertial adult event.
YOU are the one at fault. Remove the pictures of the kids from the Gay Games articles. You do not have permision from the parents or children to use those pictures. (and don't go on about freedom of speech here Cal.)
I'm trying to be patient, but you don't seem to care who you hurt as long as your words are in print.
# posted by Kat : 6:57 AM