Unless I have some sort of Mel Gibson moment, the odds are in my favor that I will be elected to the Ypsilanti City Council this November. As my life prepares to move from anonymity to the world stage, I’ve had to reconsider how I phrase my thoughts and ideas.

Prior to the primary in August, there was a blurb on one of my competitor’s web sites that said “I think we’ve all noticed Brian’s been posting far, far less to east-cross.com since he entered the race. I can only imagine how little he’ll post if elected.” And if I were elected, I’d “lose [my] outsider perspective and independent voice” and that I’d “slowly [become] part of the machine.”

To be perfectly honest, the lack of updates is because I’ve been lazy. I’ve been sick too. And with season finales of both “Flavor of Love” and “Project Runway” almost on top of each other on the television schedule, all of my free time has been used up.

I’m not afraid to admit that I like the idea of being part of the machine.

There will always be people to rage against the machine. It would be an interesting dynamic, and there would always be lots of excitement. If I were to be part of the machine, perhaps I would have my own foil. Say, a Han Solo to my Luke Skywalker or a Laertes to my Hamlet or a Jerry Lewis to my Dean Martin.

The whole councilperson slash internet celebrity is an unusual role. It’s true that Washtenaw County Clerk & Register of Deeds, Larry Kestenbaum has been able to walk the fine line exceptionally well. He routinely posts communications to his staff on his site, and he also is a regular among the message board votaries on such sites as Arbor Update and Ann Arbor is Overrated. Richard Murphy of the Common Monkeyflower and current Ypsilanti City employee has a web site as well and hasn’t done anything yet to get fired. Ypsilanti School Board trustee Cameron Getto hasn’t been recalled for his blog activity. Current Ypsilanti DDA Director, Brian Vosburg, left a digital paper trail prior to his hiring and continues to post on forums. And there are a number of members of the current Ypsilanti City Council who are brave enough to post comments on other folks’ web sites and tackle such sensitive issues as City Hall’s fluid hiring process.

It probably won’t be such a big deal.

Besides, nobody really reads blogs anymore. No one wants to admit it, but they are echo chambers.

If you have a blog, then you probably read the other 49 Ypsilanti-based blogs too. So these same 50 people post and cross-post to one another’s blogs creating the appearance of feverish activity. At the end of the day, the only person who doesn’t have a blog that is reading this stuff is you.

And if my greatest fear is worrying that something I write that you read is going to get me in trouble, then I really don’t have much to worry about.