As part of my candidate run for U.S. Senate in Missouri, I try to reach out. Am I a “real” person to you? This can be difficult to do in our virtual networked society where so much of our interactions are via zoom. But what is greener than going to a meeting virtually? Think of all wear and tear, and gasoline I save not having to drive. And think of the risk of covid. So I try to Tweet and write in this blog.

Sometimes I go to virtual meetings. On December 1, 2021, I went to a talk entitled, “Healing a Broken Agricultural System” organized by the MO Green Party. It was an interesting meeting with the speaker talking about chemical pesticides and fertilizers used in large-scale industrial farming. He said that there was an alternative.

But right in the middle of his speech, the Zoom meeting was overtaken by raw pornography. I couldn’t avoid it. They ended up stopping the meeting and then relaunching. Then, the racial epithets began. And more raw pornography.

That ended my participation in the meeting. Why is this important? Because the First Amendment is all about the right to peacefully assemble. If you can’t peaceably assemble you can’t organize. And if you can’t organize, you can’t have a Democracy.

I launched a complaint with the Trust Department at Zoom. Hopefully they will investigate and perhaps make their Zoom product bomb proof.

Who did it? I talked with several Green party organizers and they did not know. They did seem confident that they could avoid these attacks in the future. Apparently attacks have happened before, but nothing this raw or ugly. I am a natural optimist. I really believe in the system, and in progress. I wish I had answers, but I have only questions. Whoever did this was into dirty tricks and wanted to do harm. In this he/she succeeded.