Dawn Johnson of Laconia is an elected member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and of the City of Laconia School Board.
In an article appearing in the December 12 edition of the Laconia Daily Sun newspaper, it was reported that she had posted to her Facebook page certain materials that included a link to a site that turned out to be maintained by some type of neo-Nazi and/or anti-Semitic group.
In point of fact, she did not know the background of the site whose link she had posted, but as soon as she was informed about their nefarious positions, she promptly removed the post and apologized for having made the mistake of the initial post.
Not unexpectedly, she has now been barraged with emails and telephone calls and voicemail messages calling upon her to resign her elected positions, but more critically some of the emails and messages (a) have been of a threatening and harassing nature, both to her and to her family, including threats of coming to her home to confront her; and (b) seem to originate from outside of New Hampshire (i.e., across state lines). These matters have been referred to the FBI for investigation.
For the record, Dawn Johnson is not an anti-Semite or a racist or a hater.
I happen to be Jewish and I would never defend any anti-Semite, racist or hater. I know Dawn Johnson. She is my colleague and friend, and she is none of those.
The Internet can be a very dangerous place for adults as well as children. Just as it is easy for children to be lured into illicit sexual encounters or worse through the Internet, so can adults inadvertently fall into terrible situations far beyond their intentions through the Internet and email.
How many times have you mistakenly hit the “reply all” key in an email when you only wanted to respond to a single individual? How many times have you inadvertently clicked on a link, thinking it would lead you to one thing when it turned out to be quite different? How many times have we seen posts of fake photos that have been created or altered electronically solely to embarrass someone?
Dawn’s present situation is the second example of someone I know from the Lakes Region who posted or forwarded an Internet link to a story that they thought in good faith was legitimate but that turned out to be of an anti-Semitic or racist origin. But I know that neither of those women are anti-Semites, racists, or haters.
The unfortunate result is that some actual haters who prowl the Internet have now created and posted fake racist posts, falsely claiming attribution to Dawn, and have commenced harassing her and her family on the telephone and through other means.
As an elected official, who happens to be a liberty-loving conservative Republican, and who happens to be an outspoken voice on many important issues, Dawn makes an attractive target for anyone who maliciously would like to bring her down. But this simple mistake on her part does not change her inherent good character and willingness to put herself into the sometimes harsh spotlight of public service.
The loudest voices calling for her resignation are from hard left political activists, including a former chair of the state Dem party, the current chair of the state Dem party, and a left-oriented candidate for the House from Laconia who has repeatedly been rejected by the voters.
The hypocrisy of the head of the state’s opposition political party apparently has no bounds. While he calls for the resignation of a representative who has made an unintentional mistake using the Internet, he has repeatedly failed to call for the resignation of representatives of his own party who have engaged in much worse and intentional behavior, both in the House chambers and elsewhere.
There is absolutely no reason for Dawn to resign from any offices to which she has been elected by the voters, and she is determined to stay in her elected positions.
Probably the best advice I could give her (any most anyone) these days would be to take a break from the Internet and “social media” that can so easily be abused.
And when the smoke clears and you want to get back to using the good parts of the Internet and social media (if it has any actual good parts), be very, very careful.
