A number of folks noticed this afternoon that both the Manifest Obama video (I posted it last week here) and website had disappeared. I’d received a nice note about the video from Lauren Rosenfeld, one of its creators (see comments), so I e-mailed Lauren and her husband, James, to find out what happened.
Here’s their response:
Anne,
Thank you so much for your kind support of Manifest Obama. We took it down because it was no longer serving its intended purpose of watering the seeds of peace and positive focus amongst supporters.
We were at 23,000 views around dinnertime last night, and things had been going well – lots of very nice, very positive feedback from supporters. But then we started noticing a huge spike in traffic (an additional 20,000 views by this morning) and experienced an overwhelming number of very troubled & troubling comments, both on the video and on outside blogs. When we learned this morning that Glenn Beck had mentioned the project in a negative light on his show, we realized that we were catalyzing & provoking exactly the opposite of what we wanted. So we pulled the plug swiftly.
Though it was perhaps a disappointing ending, we feel the project served its purpose. Everything is impermanent!
We were so happy and grateful for your comments and other comments from similar supporters. We will all continue to stay positive and proactive, continue to focus on bringing peace & prosperity to everyone in this nation & the world. We will continue to recognize and transform the suffering we see around us, even & especially in those who disagree with us. We will continue to work towards the day when Obama, an exceptional and inspiring leader, takes the oath of office. Thank you for all your support!!
Many blessings,
James & Lauren
Thank you, James and Lauren, for providing hope in a positive manner. As I mention in my post below, I often attract haters as well, and I know how icky it feels. At least on this blog, I can moderate comments and refuse to post anything that I think is rude, bitter, inappropriate, or worse. I guess y’all had no such recourse on YouTube, which is unfortunate. I think, regardless of controversy, you’ve got to keep putting your truth out there. Perhaps we’ll get to see the Manifest Obama video back up on November 5th.


