The post is still there!
I don't know what happened to it initially, but it must have been a rare glitch.
Steemit doesn't just remove entire posts from the blockchain.
Every once in a while someone tries to post and the entire thing glitches and erases. So just make sure to have a backup copy in case that happens, so that you can repost it.
It was resteemed today by another steemer.. Both original posts disappeared within an hour. If my resteemed post doesn't disappear as well, maybe my faith in humanity might be restored just a little bit. I don't understand how Steemit works. Is it true some whale person can down vote me down to the basement and make a post disappear that way?
A person can't resteem a post that isn't already there!
Maybe it's got something to do with your browser. Try using a different browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.)
If your post had been flagged down below $0, it would still appear but be light grey colored and people could still read it if they want to.
Occasionally flags are abused, but they also have an important purpose of stopping spammers, plagiarizers, harassers, abusers, etc.
Normally people think twice before they start flagging, because it can come back to bite them too.
I went to bat for a small newbie a bit ago, who was posting something that can be considered controversial. The guy who flagged him had only a little more steem power than he did, but enough to make his post invisible since the new guy didn't have many followers. So I confronted the flagger and he said that it was his right to flag, so then I told that if he felt that way, it was also within my right to flag his posts back and make them disappear. Needless to say, he changed his behaviour and removed his flag.
So yes, it's a delicate balance her on Steemit.
The platform would quickly become a bad place though if we couldn't flag all the plagiarism, etc.
Thanks for this info. It did seem to have disappeared until it was resteemed from my page. I have a lot to learn about the workings of Steemit.