Category: Emerging From Dystopia

Freedom is not for the faint of heart

You are free to shout “fire” in a crowded theater. All you have to do is be prepared to accept the consequences — for example, time in jail or prison, and/or civil suits by people injured in the ensuing panic, or their survivors.

You are free to blame a madman’s actions on your political adversaries. All you have to do is be prepared to accept the consequences — for example, looking like a damn fool when the madman’s friends confirm he was apolitical and paid no attention to your adversaries.

Freedom comes with responsibility, accountability for your words and actions. It’s not always easy to speak your mind publicly, because just as you have every right to express your views, those who hear have every right to offer their opinions in response. Sometimes other people’s opinions of yours won’t be pleasant.

Never mind what Big Brother said, freedom is the opposite of slavery. The solution to foolish or angry words is a reasoned response. The solution is not silencing the foolish or angry speaker by the force of new law – and the solution is certainly not violence. Not ever.

Freedom is not for the faint of heart. Freedom of speech means sometimes we will hear things we’d rather not hear. Stupid and/or evil folks will abuse freedom, and you can count on that. But the actions of a few do not justify stealing freedom from the many.

Freedom is not a gift of government. You were born with certain, inherent rights. Governments are formed to secure these rights, not create them. The most tyrannical government cannot remove these rights, although (as governments are designed to do) it may impede the exercise of freedom, and often does.

Freedom is the default mode of a human being. We relinquish our freedoms at our own peril. Think hard before you advocate for restricting any of them.

Originally posted Jan. 13, 2011

The parable of the four lights

 © Mr. Namart Pieamsuwan | Dreamstime.com

It feels like an act of daring to go ahead 

and live what would have been a normal life two years ago,

To take the risk of walking out the front door,

knowing you could hit a deer or get hit by a car yourself

or catch a bad cold or otherwise encounter, at last,

Whatever it is you’re going to die of.

•

All this second-guessing of what to say

And what to do, instead of living.

•

I want to live.

I want to enjoy the time that’s left.

So many people can’t stand for people to live

And love and be free and go in peace.

•

A weirdness has settled over the world.

Perhaps the real virus is a disease

That makes people half-cocked,

And the absurd and the outrageous have seized power.

•

Except the outrage is often over nothing at all

and people spend their days searching

for the next pariah, who happens to be

the next person to stand up and say,

“This is all nuts,”

and even I can’t tell anymore if I’m making sense

or if I’m the one who’s nuts —

except the insane person is the last person

to recognize his insanity — which is why

so many people finally see the emperor has no clothes.

•

Run on, sentences, run on —

you’re old enough to know better,

so run on, sentences, run like the wind.  

What darkness?

© Sasinparaksa | Dreamstime.com

It’s all in our minds, you know.

This world, this existence, this life, is all so breathtakingly beautiful that we are overcome.

And so, we find ways to reduce the enormity.

We glaze our eyes over. 

We divert our attention.

We fuss among ourselves.

We deliberately seek ugliness, and darkness, and what hurts.

And so, we miss the obvious.

This is obviously a huge, beautiful world in a universe of infinite and unspeakable grandeur.

Our minds can scarcely drink it all in, so we try to make the universe smaller.

We try to make it less grand.

We focus on the imperfections.

We focus on the petty differences.

When we lift our eyes, however, we know the meaning of awe.

It is too much, until it is just enough.

Then, and only then, do we see.

Life is not a small, churlish thing.

Life is a big, wide adventure full of wonder, that is to say, wonderful.

The more we wonder, the more we live.

The more we live, the more we chase the dark away.

Light bright lights along the path, the better to heal the darkness.

A modest proposal

I propose that we, the people, begin to enforce these 10 steps to bring our runaway government under control.

  1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
  2. A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
  3. No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
  4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
  5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
  6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
  7. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
  8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
  9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
  10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The end of journalism as I knew it

All my life as a journalist, I have tried to write in a way that was fair to all sides of an issue and masked whatever my personal opinion was, because the idea was to present the facts of a story accurately.

This is the authentic beginning of a news story that cleared the Associated Press feed the other day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — First, some blamed the deadly Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol on left-wing antifa antagonists, a theory quickly debunked. Then came comparisons of the rioters to peaceful protesters or even tourists.
Now, allies of former President Donald Trump are calling those charged in the Capitol riot “political prisoners,” a stunning effort to revise the narrative of that deadly day.
The brazen rhetoric ahead of a rally planned for Saturday at the Capitol is the latest attempt to explain away the horrific assault and obscure what played out for all the world to see: rioters loyal to the then-president storming the building, battling police and trying to stop Congress from certifying the election of Democrat Joe Biden.

Neither the writer of this AP story, nor whatever editor(s) read and cleared it for release, would have a job in a newsroom where I was asked to be in charge.

I don’t think I need to point out the places where the writer’s opinion bleeds through, do I? Hints: “a theory quickly debunked.” Words like “stunning” and “brazen” and “horrific.” This is the opposite of objective reporting.

There’s a place for this kind of writing in journalism, of course — in articles clearly marked “opinion” and/or “analysis.” I saw neither label in plain sight.

This is an example of why the average human being has lost faith in what has come to be known as mainstream media. At least non-mainstream media is straightforward about its agenda. There seems to be no one left in the business interested in telling the story straight down the middle.

The only way to get something resembling an objective view is to read several versions of a story and try to discern the objective facts that every side seems to agree on. For example, on Jan. 6 it’s clear that hundreds if not thousands of people entered the Capitol building, one person was shot and killed by a police officer, a number of people were injured and property damage was done. Almost everything beyond that is open to interpretation.

It always has depended on your point of view. In the past, at least, or at least in news stories I wrote, each point of view was presented with neutral language. I guess I’m an old fossil from another time.

Make your escape plan

Each of us, from time to time, looks around the workaday work and thinks, “I should not be doing this. I was meant more something more or at least something else. I feel the call of the wild, the call of the pure, the art, if you will.”

That’s the muse whispering in your ear or bopping you upside the head. Ignore her alarm at your soul’s peril.

It is foolish to skip out on your obligations to the workaday, so don’t run out the door just yet. But figure out your escape plan, or at least heed the call and listen to the muse during your lunch breaks.

Jot down the skeleton of your art to flesh out later – heed the call – listen with all your heart as if it were life and death, because it is.

The morning news

In the last 24 hours …

Thousands of couples around the world celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with family and friends.

Millions of business transactions occurred smoothly, with buyer and seller both satisfied. Millions of charitable acts also took place.

Billions of people shared a laugh — or at least a chuckle — or maybe a gentle smile — with a friend or loved one.

Hundreds of thousands of flights landed safely. A few dozen Democrats and Republicans even managed to say something nice about each other.

Of the billions and billions of interactions among the 7 billion of us that occur every day, a trifling fraction make the morning news, which is a compilation of the aberrations, the exceptions, the awful things that go wrong or have been perpetrated by some people against other persons and property.

It’s been said that to make the world a little brighter, one thing you can do is turn off the morning news and look around at all the reasons to be thankful.

As someone who has always made his living in the news business, I can’t say that this is sound advice.

But I’m thinking it.