When Stephanie Ortiz, aka Mama, wrote a controversial article that gets wiped clean of the internet for 14+ hours of “housekeeping,” suspicious?

Getting censored, if only it means your Philly Flair article on Tigre Hill’s “72 Seconds in Rittenhouse Square” can’t be read by anyone, does something to you.

Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t help but get excited when the site first went down. The thought even crossed my mind–could this make me a real journalist? What I wrote was so controversial they had to take it down for censorship.

Talk about hitting the big leagues: no more Mama and her muses. (I wouldn’t have deserted my blog that easily–this is my imagination here).

But every hour that ticked on after 6:30 p.m. on that dreadful Monday, I couldn’t help but click one more time to ensure it wasn’t. Oh, no, blank space.

What luck to get struck down by the dreaded housekeeping bug! My excitement turned to anger, and woe was me.

And before I went to bed, my anger was replaced with outrage. How dare those censor gods? It’s a conspiracy theory–no one, especially not cleaning services, silences me.

Every reporter in Philly published and posted about Tigre’s documentary–every reader could freely click on their posts. But my tiny little voice was gone.

(Forget Alex’s point–the whole site was down, not just my article. If they were targeting me, wouldn’t it only be my article?)

I’d have no such logic. No one took the approach I wrote in my article. I said watching this docuseries is not enough; we must discuss it. I even posted discussion questions to start the forum.

But then the site was restored the following day (making me dream up these conspiracy theories for nothing) and making me feel that I didn’t have the imagination to make something as outlandish as this up when I did.

So, I blew this whole thing out of proportion. What else is new?

Yet, my brink with censorship made me laugh, and when I could think again, it made me realize that I don’t ask hard questions, just those that come from the heart. That’s why I could recognize the value of what Tigre did. He produced and directed this exceptional docuseries that leaves us needing to talk about everything that matters most.

He hit a nerve, so let’s address it. Don’t pretend it’s not there or we didn’t see it. We have a chance to have a voice and use it (thankfully, mine had been silenced for 14 hours to remind us what censorship feels like).

Tigre showed his genius as a local Philly filmmaker, showing the flip sides of controversy. Letting both sides have a chance to speak.

Now that my article’s available again, I should be able to leave well enough alone. I can’t. I’m here with a vengeance: I want to express myself more than ever. Hear me roar kind of thing!

Let’s talk about the stuff that makes us feel uncomfortable. Let’s have those conversations. Listen to one another, speak, and be heard.

Please post your comments here. I love writing here more than anywhere because you talk with me. We’re a community of musers. And if anyone can have a genuine conversation about serious matters (as well as fun ones), we can.

So, to get this conversation started, it begins with you.

Oh, and one minor thing: watch 72 Seconds in Rittenhouse Square streaming on Paramount+. (Psst! Just in case they ask, don’t tell them Mama told you).

https://www.phillyflair.com/72-seconds-in-rittenhouse-square/