As I write more posts it gets harder to find topics.  I try to stay away from current news items and posts those opinions under Discussions on my Home page.  But sometime I feel certain news items deserving of more attention so I address them as a post but more as a general topic unto itself rather than a discuss of the specific item in the news.  I know there are many untouched subjects but often my mind simply goes blank.  I am simply not as invested in most topics.

I have a modest readership.  I am surprised at my international appeal.  Probably a good 30-40% of my viewers come from outside of the U.S. so my posts must have some international relevance though I’m not sure why.  Perhaps it’s because I sometimes represent other than the views of the status quo.  There are viewers from nations I’ve never heard of and have to Google them to learn more.  But I’m glad I have such a universal appeal, modest as it might be.

I have learned quite a bit about myself as well as the world around me while writing.  Writing hasn’t always come easy.  I have dyslexia so I’ve never seriously seen how others write.  In the last 21 months I have written 170 articles so I’ve got a lot of practice and do less editing than before.  Practice makes perfect.  My spelling hasn’t improved much because I am so heavily dependent upon spellchecker.  But I do have to pay close attention to word that sound alike to me but are spent differently.  Writing causes me to think much deeper about the subject I am writing and sometimes I must do a bit of research or soul searching.  So this adventure in writing has been at times a bit eye opening.

Being autistic I have great difficulty reading the intentions of others I meet and speak with.  So I do a lot of guessing and try to pay close attention to their tone of voice and gestures.  I try to get into people’s minds to understand them better but I’m still too often wrong.  I do the same in my writing.  I try to empathize with the people I write about.  For example when I write about people, friend or foe, who are being shot at by American troops or missiles abroad I try to imagine the utter terror they must experience as these powerful weapons are exploding around them and imagine their utter horror when a loved one is killed in front of their eyes.  They must feel a combination of extreme hysteria and rage at the ugly Americans who have taken the life of their loved ones.  When a Black kid is killed by law enforcement regardless of whose fault it is I can empathize with the grieving parents who want to blame and hated all cops for shooting at them and pulling them over like in a police state, for that is what it seems for many.  It is less about the particular incident than about the oppressive environment we Americans create for people abroad as much as within our own country that brings about such hatred for this government and its establishment.

For me hate is tantamount to evil.  When the Taliban destroyed the Twin Towers and killed thousands of innocent Americans hate drove us to kill as many Taliba as possible and pursue Osama bin Laden relentlessly for over ten years until he was found and killed.  I find such hate distasteful.  From bin Laden’s vantage point Americans have killed many thousands of his people and tried to interfere with the politics of the Middle East and his land.  I see us as more the aggressors and both equally evil and out for vengeance and blood.  After all we have tens of thousands of troops on their soil and many war ships with deadly missiles ready to fire at them off their shores as well as an air force ready to strike and they perhaps have only a handful on our soil we are not aware of.  So if you were an alien with no ax to grind whom would you feel was the greater aggressor?

Nations are simply people acting out against one another; super-egos pitted against super-egos.  War to me is repugnant and inhumane, or perhaps very humane since we are the only species capable of such great destruction and annihilation.  I strive to show how ridiculous war is and how immature we are for doing it so callously.  I sometimes feel ashamed to be an American because we love so little and hate and fight so much.  We have such powerful weapons which we treat like violent video games.

I also write a lot about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, the visions and blueprints of a new kind of republic, an experiment in government.  There are many topics related to this from the separation of church from state to what are man’s fundamental rights.  I write about social and human rights and social justice.  I also spend time writing about Global Warming, a topic of urgency I care much about.

My pen has guided me through a broad range of interesting journeys.  I strive to use it to champion a peaceful and just world, at least from my perspective.