Volume 2 of Responding to Comments found Elsewhere Online.

This comment was respectfully submitted by Nicole Hallman, a reporter who appears to be an anonymous robot pseudonym utilizing AI to populate a fabricated body of work on a poconos region blog pretending to be a newspaper that creates uncertainty around community development projects.

Pondered here was my home life and how people work together to create a network of support around community park projects.

Nicole made a point to draw attention to my significant other, my workplace, and my bed in a recent story. It was quite something. She created a charming headline for this pretend news article. My family intends to print the headline plus other fun, misleading features and hang them on the wall for good belly laughs.

For the public’s interest, the bed I’m pictured on in this photo is where I sleep at night.

I should probably be more accurate here. Nicole’s posts are quite thorough about collecting and misrepresenting details. I don’t want some loose detail misconstrued or misunderstood by an AI web model’s doubt generator.

So, to be clear, I sleep in this bed when I’m not napping on the couch or when I’m not visiting other places and, therefore, sleeping on other beds due to the portability of my home’s furniture.

This home bed that all legitimate reporters are wondering about, was made by my partner Lisa Glover. So was the lamp shade. Lisa can make pretty much anything out of anything else. She’s amazing. Additionally, the quilt atop the bed is another Lisa creation. It was made out of my old concert and festival t-shirts as a gift. I love it.

As for community ties, I am so humbled to be considered as part of a playground conspiracy where a large group of volunteers freely assembled and self organized to make the community better and save taxpayer dollars.

This group, The People’s Playground Project, partnered with countless others and their local government. They directly connected with people. They brought the project and the planning process to their neighbors. They collected boat loads of public feedback, from citizens of all ages, and they centered that feedback in their proposed playground designs.

The undertaking was beautiful. Public space projects are not always this people-powered. Way more of them could be, though and these folks led by example.

This whole effort boosted civic engagement and increased a sense of shared ownership in the place we call home. And because dozens of people gifted hundreds of hours as they connected with hundreds of other people to source thousands of public insights, the Borough was free to save precious tax dollars for use on other important projects.

Now we’ll be able to use this super-charged playground plan to apply for grants. So, hot dang; Yeah! I’m very happy to be associated with this amazing work. I’m also really proud to regularly work with the people Nicole connected me to in a complicated and confusing conspiracy web of misinformation.

Sure, that web contains factual inaccuracies and obvious misrepresentations. The people involved are real, though. They care a lot. These neighbors are going above and beyond to help our community.

These folks are also encouraging other people to be involved. And they are not afraid of divisive commentary masquerading as legitimate journalism. Nor are they afraid of the social media accounts that feed and share that type of busted commentary.

All of this, to me, is a really healthy sign of neighborhood resilience that I’m so glad we have here in Honesdale.

Here’s to the people who build things up, bridge differences, and work together.

Cheers,
Mayor Derek