If you read the Forecaster, you likely know who Eddie Beem is, or as he likes to be called, Edgar Allen Beem. He’s their “featured” opinion writer, regularly proclaiming his moral, intellectual, cultural, and overall superiority compared to the rest of us. He’s not above btragging of how much praise he gets from ordinary people as he makes his way through his extraordinary life. Like many journalists, he is convinced his “work” is more noble and profound than those of lesser souls.
We frequently joust with Eddie on the comment threads for his columns, and we seem to have a knack for getting his shorts twisted around his neck, causing him to unleash all sorts of uncivilized names at us, and others, when we challenge his thoughts and expression. We’ve lost track of how many times he’s sworn he would never again respond to our comments, but it doesn’t really matter. All we have to do is chase his goat around his “journalistic” corral, and sure enough he’ll take the bait and break his promise anew.
Governor LePage and President Trump are particular burrs in Eddie’s tongue, and he can take a column on donuts and somehow find a way to turn it into tirades against either or both. Over the years, Side has come to believe that his bouts of LDS and TDS have done permanent damage to his coping skills, and his behavior has suffered as a result.
Last week, The Forecaster carried an item of his dated January 29th called “Maine goes to pot.”
In the process of responding to comments posted, he pretty much lost control of his senses, stating that “99% of Trump voters are white trash Americans,” suggesting they were violent cretins who would get their just desserts in the upcoming mid-term elections and beyond. The Forecaster moderator quickly removed Eddie’s shrill vulgarities, realizing they were not in keeping with the lofty standards of their pages. Therefore, we can’t recover Eddies full exact words. Nor could we recover them on his Disqus profile page, since he has it set at “private,” which is probably a good thing for him, since the archive would portray the troubled soul of a self-absorbed yet completely self-unaware opinion writer still seeking the validation of all he encounters.
You can find the comment string here: http://www.theforecaster.net/the-universal-notebook-maine-goes-to-pot/, and our comments are posted as “poppypapa.” Furthermore, our Disgus account is available for public perusal.
You’ll note that two comments were deleted in the string; both of those were Eddie’s. You can tell from the comments of others just how snotty and snooty he got in his remarks. Here’s a clip cited in someone else’s post:
"I'm afraid there is no other way to describe Trump followers, 99% of whom are ignorant, prejudiced, evangelical, gun nuts, white nationalists and rednecks."
The comment that “99% of Trump voters are white trash Americans” seemed to us beyond anything we’ve seen from Eddie in his saner days. Especially since it encompasses the Sides, mumerous family members, and scores and scores of friends and acquaintances. Not to mention tens of millions of American voters.
So we quickly dashed off a letter to the editor of The Forecaster, reading as shown:
I've been jousting with Ed Beem in the comment strings for his opinion columns for many years, enjoying the fever pitch he rises to when challenged in any way, no matter how civilly.
I've always been surprised, and often shocked, by how someone who considers himself a shining example of humanity's best and brightest, compared to most of his readers, can stoop to the very lowest in name-calling and demonization when readers challenge his thoughts, and often, even when they don't. His devout hatred of anyone to the right of center, and major elected officials for whom he did not vote, clearly brings out the inner contempt and incivility masked by that avuncular head shot at the top of each column.
In a comment on his recent item on going to pot, Ed lashed out at Trump voters by calling them "white trash Americans." He went further in related posts, asserting that "99% of Trump voters are white trash Americans," and went even further in labeling them with assorted disgraceful terms.
I don't know what percentage of Forecaster readers and advertisers voted for Trump, but I can assure you that there are many more than Eddie might think. While we don't pay for our copy of the Forecaster, I'd think the editors might be a bit more sensitive to the "diversity" of their readership and ad-buyers.
Eddie clearly doesn't believe in diversity, especially when it comes to opposing those candidates he reveres, no matter who he might offend on your pages in the process.
Maybe Eddie needs a "time out." Might I suggest one with a TBD end date?
Pem Schaeffer
Brunswick
The Editor not only didn’t publish the letter, he didn’t even acknowledge it’s receipt. And Eddie is right back on their pages this week with one of his psuedo-elite-intellectual thought pieces on “the arts,” which he considers one of his greatest strengths. Not a single mention of his excursions on the unhinged axis the week before, clear as they were for a few revealing moments.
We do note this line in the current item, however:
Maybe I’ve been sensitive to endings lately because at 68 I am making preparations for retirement, developing an investment strategy, getting a will in order, making arrangements for health insurance, long-term care and lugubrious stuff like that.
We humbly suggest that waiting until you are about to retire at 68 is just a touch late to work on an investment strategy.
What we really want to know is whether the editors might have decided that Eddie finally crossed their “line in the sand,” and was told to craft a soft exit for himself in the words of his beloved weekly thought selfies.
In which case, we have to wonder how local groupies will survive without him.
And where those readers who are not white trash will find validation of their own without him.
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