Blog Year 15

This blog is three months into its 15th year. Hard to believe, really. I first started this blog to provide a place to ventilate my feelings on a large array of topics. This allowed me to edit a newspaper without letting non-community issues enter the conversation. It not only worked for that purpose, but it provided an entirely new arena for my writing.

In turn, my thinking has grown exponentially. Any topic is now subjected to analysis, feelings and writing. The internal conversations I have over these topics is intense and nearly constant.

That reminds me, do you think in the abstract, or do you voice your thoughts in your mind?  I think I have always voiced my thinking, although I do not have a sound to the voice. I doubt I would recognize it if I heard it! Do any of you do the same thing?  I don’t recall ever having asked that question of anyone. Do tell me your experiences.

Another thought, a lot has happened in the past 14 years. Just think of the advancements we have made in diversity, ethnicity and inclusion. I witnessed the struggles firsthand through the decades. We finally arrived at a point where society was truly taking stock of its past discrimination, all sorts of them. We had begun to make progress in addressing them. Will we never fully address them all, but surely, we will make an honest effort to do so. Today, our federal Department of Justice is cracking down on DEI as though it is the problem, that is the solutions are the issue and all need to be withdrawn. A complete turnaround from decades of progress?

Passage of time demonstrates the reality of how human nature remains the same. Stubborn. Under informed. Disconnected from some knowledge hubs that would make life better understood. But that takes energy and many people refuse to invest time and inspection to more information. They remain ignorant yet vote, make decisions and then lament why something bad happened and who’s to blame for it. Sound like MAGA? Well, it is. Little wonder DEI is under attack, eh?

Fifteen years of social history lived and yet lived imperfectly; explains a lot of issues we face today. When I was in high school and college, I swore I would work to fix all that is wrong. And I did labor to do just that, but today I survey our landscape of ideas and social issues and wondered how wrong we were! I guess each generation goes through this and ends up seven or eight decades later realizing the same lack of progress. Sad but true.

Well, at least we can continue to try to make a difference. Each of us can do that. The cumulative effect will be better than what now exists though major issues will persist. Such is the promise of a new year!!

January 2, 2026

 

 

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