Chris, Please Reconsider

Chris at freenorthkorea.net has announced that he’s ending his blog. He cites some perfectly good personal reasons for doing this–his job search and family priorities–but he also cites nasty comments and the sheer time consumption as another part of the reason. I understand bloggers’ fatigue, which also took away The Rathbone Press, another favorite. I have considered limiting my efforts to my writings at NKZone, too, but always had too many opinions that we just not appropriate for that site.

Look, Chris, if you’re reading this, consider that the passage of the election changes many things. It will focus both of us on North Korea again. Admit it, both of us let ourselves be distracted by politics, and that probably resulted in a lot of the nasty comments you got. Undoubtedly, you’re depressed about the election results, too. That’s not a good reason to let yourself despair. Had things gone 3% in the other direction, I hope you’d be talking me off the ledge right now.

My suggestion? Take some time to do some serious job hunting. Expand your geographic options–the job market in D.C. is great and it isn’t that bad living here. Consider other fields that have always interested you. Let the sting of the elections pass–it did for me in ’92 and ’96. Find the limit of blogging that you can sustain and cap your efforts at that level. Then come back to help bring a more diverse viewpoint to a worthy cause.