Hello everyone. After lurking on all of these blogs for four years, I've decided to make the great leap. I don't profess to know anything more than other people who used kos as a jumping off point, but witnessing history unfold for better or worse after 2000 A.D. have prompted me to voice my opinions and to utilize the great democratizing tool the Internet has become. Hopefully it'll remain a force for rational Western thought.
I witnessed the destruction of the World Trade Center on television while eating breakfast before my commute to college. I was saddened not only because of the deaths of innocent people, but also I realized that the event was a turning point in history that, for better or worse, was going to change our society forever. Even then I felt a sense of foreboding.
The following five years have filled me with anger, hopelessness, angst, bewilderment, fear, confusion, hope and wonderment. These mixture of emotions have prompted me to seek all information I felt I needed in order for my family's continued survival in these perilous times. I felt that what I was reading in the newspapers and watching on the evening news was woefully lacking in substance. What happened in Hollywood didn't concern me; What did I care about Ben and Jen, about hip-hop, about the Olsen Twins, Lindsey Lohan, NASCAR and all that crap?
Things really started to come together when I mentioned to a friend of mine at work about the quality of the news. That's when he told me that the United States was now the "Evil Empire". I didn't understand that; the United States, the Evil Empire? Wasn't the old Soviet Union the "Evil Empire"? He then proceeded to explain to me things that were happening around us; The War on Terror, the Middle East, oil, Islam, The Patriot Act and the military. What about the news I asked? "Don't believe anything you see on TV", he said, "Start investigating things on the Internet instead".
So that's what I did. In 2002, I started to read news, blogs, online news services, BBC online, Asia Times and even Al-Jezherra. Do I believe everything I see online? No of course I don't. But I do believe that I can get more unbiased news online than I can get any other way. American main stream media after I studied it for a period of time is a mouth-piece for the corporate right-wing government; the propaganda is sickening to witness, especially after watching the BBC. Now most of you will say, "duh"!! But my enlightenment came about over a period of five years and I was never what you or I would consider a liberal or progressive. I can be rather conservative and set in my ways at times. But I was never a fan of Saint Ronnie Reagan and I was never a fan of the Bush Dynasty, I and II.
So as we enter into the final days before Election 2006 we all ponder whether the Democrats can win the Congress by not being the Republicans, or will the legend of Karl Rove once again work its seemingly supernatural power and pull out another "grassroots, anti-gay, anti-abortion, fear of terrorists" victory for his "William McKinley" Republican Party? I myself don't know. For my part, I'm voting early Tuesday morning on my way to work. If things work out to where the karmic wheel comes around to balance events out again, I will drink a toast to the spirits of Jack Daniels. If the wheel continues its march backwards, I will do what is necessary to do the right thing.
I don't think I will be alone.