Belated Introduction

Everybody has a blog nowadays and as a journalist, I've resisted the temptation to express my political views in a blog form because of concerns that I would be accused of liberal bias. But while I am a flaming liberal, I've always gone out of my way to be fair to people I personally disagreed with while not going soft on those I agreed with. That's a basic tenet of journalism and the idea that journalists don't have biases or opinions like everybody else is absurd.

I never graduated from college, but I've tried to self-educate myself. The more I learn the truth about this nation's bloody history as opposed to the conventional wisdom I learned as a kid and young man, the more I've become radicalized politically. This country has a history of oppressing other nations abroad and screwing over poor and working class Americans to benefit the rich. And since WWII we've become a national security state with an economy based on producing weapons of war and therefore dependent on war or the threat of it.

But a nation based on those principles cannot survive. As our economy collapses due to cannabalistic capitalism and our environment dies due to the climate change we've largely caused and willfully ignored, I've become increasingly despondent about our future and my own. As a citizen, I've done little other than an occasional protest and a check sent to civil and human rights organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International. As a reporter, I've tried to do stories that illustrated the growing gap between the rich and poor, tell the stories of the victims of violence and challenge those in power to be accountable.

Of course my efforts have been miniscule and done little to change things for the better although I think I have occasionally opened some eyes and made some small positive difference. However, when you stand up to those in power, be prepared to get knocked down. I know that some of my firings from newspapers are largely based on my rocking the boat. That's supposed to be an obligation of journalists - afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted - but most editors don't want to rock the boat lest they upset advertisers or local powerbrokers. So I have lost a lot of jobs the last six years and will probably never have job security if I'm lucky enough to find another job.

This blog is an attempt to express my frustration in the way things are and try to occasionally offer solutions. I don't expect it will do any good, but I've always believed in lost causes a catergory that I suppose I should include myself in.