The Seated View

Also posted on CreakyJoints   “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?” -           Rodney King A few weeks ago, I took to email and social media to ask about a certain undercurrent   in the RA online community where people felt there wasn’t room for them. The stories I was told, from people feeling left out   to being outright bullied and harassed, formed the basis for my first post on divisions in the RA community . In my second post, I will look whether we in the RA community can ever get along.  On a personal level, it boggles my mind that we are vicious towards each other. It makes me angry, makes me want to defend those who are bullied. And I am so sad that the division in this community result in people being further isolated. We all have one overarching thing in common: RA. We understand each other on a more basic level than anyone else because we understand what RA feels like. Sometimes, we find a friendship beyo

Also posted on CreakyJoints “I had to stop going online because there was no comfort for me there.” (Kim Bruno, @kaurorab ) “ I have been made to feel that you will only be accepted in these groups and listened to, if you only share your woes and not your victories.” (Brenda Kleinsasser, editor of CreakyJoints Poet’s Corner ) “While looking for the silver lining has gotten me through many difficult periods in life, I too need support – daily.” (Britt Johnson, @HurtBlogger ) “I t does NO good in this online community or in everyday life to tear each other down or to look at life from a bitter perspective.” (Ashley Boynes-Shuck on her Facebook page , @ArthritisAshley ) We don’t talk about this. We pretend we are all together, but that’s not really the case. Underneath the cohesive surface of the online RA community, there is division, factions, disagreements. Even bullying. And it’s time to talk about it. In this first of two posts on the topic, several mem