Why Blog?

Is everyone simply looking for their fifteen minutes of fame, seeking a catharsis, spewing venom and hatred, just simply looking to share their opinions and loneliness with others - I'm sure there are many reasons why people begin to blog, so I'll share a few of my reasons with you.

WORDS: The inescapable beauty of words has always fascinated me. Their sounds, their meanings and the incredible variety of ways they can be joined together to create everything from Shakespeare to Mein Kampf. People who take the time to expand their vocabulary can find words that express feelings they never knew how to express before, or examine concepts that lead the mind to greater development. For some time now I've had the "Word of the Day" sent to my email every morning from "Dictionary.com". If you think you're a relatively intelligent person with a firm grasp of the English language, have these words sent to you every day - your humility quotient will rise considerably.

THINKING: When do you do your best thinking? Do you do any? Most of us are too concerned with making a living and raising our children to spend a lot of time pondering the benefits of a strong central government versus states rights. Putting words down on paper, real or digital, helps develop the thinking process and allows the mind greater time to wrangle with unresolved questions. For the 99% of us who like to think we think, we'll never attain the heights of a Voltaire or the depths of a Dante, but any question, well thought out, is an accomplishment worthy of note. Even if you're a liberal and you're wrong 90% of the time, at least it shows you're still thinking and there's hope that you'll mature someday.

SARCASM: "Macdonald has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts" - Sir Winston Churchill

"Baldwin occasionally stumbles over the truth, but he always hastily picks himself up and hurries on as if nothing had happened." - Sir Winston Churchill

I'm sure there have been others over the course of time who were as adept at sarcasm as Sir Winston, but he's #1 in my book. Anyone is capable of insulting another, but the sheer genius of some retorts over the course of history leaves one continually thinking: "Geez, I wish I had said that".

CATHARSIS: My 27 year old daughter passed away on December 5, 2006. It was an accidental death, but accidents are no less painful than any other form of death. As I write this on April 24, 2007, I am still in the depths of depression. I'm getting counseling, I'm on anti-depressants, and I've been out of work on temporary disability since February. I'm doing everything that experts suggest I do, but I still have days where the thought of living is a burden. That doesn't mean I'm suicidal, it just means I don't give a tinker's damn most of the time. My brother, two years younger than I, lost his oldest daughter exactly one month to the day that I lost mine. He made an observation that the only time I've seemed truly animated in the past four months is when I'm talking about politics. So, fair warning to my liberal friends (I do have some) - expect a few shots across the bow - especially if you support that carpet-bagging Arkansas shrew with the phony black-Southern accent who thinks she should be President and her husband should be an Amb-ASS-a-bore to the world. Okay, so I occasionally make up a word or two - sue me.

COMMUNITY: We are in the midst of a transition in the history of man that is unlike any we've ever experienced before. With the advent of satellite communications and the Internet, we can speak with anyone, anywhere in the world. I'll give you an example:

Last summer, after the Lebanon/Syria/Israel/Hamas/Iran fighting (feel free to add to the list of participants if you so desire), I wrote an email to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, D.C., asking for an explanation, or justification for strapping explosives on a child and having them commit a suicidal act of terror. Mohammed (no last name given), replied to me, asking me to consider the acts of the Israeli's as well. Although he did not directly respond to the question I had asked, it began a dialog that continued for most the summer and ended with an invitation to have lunch at the Saudi Embassy anytime I'm in Washington, D.C. We solved absolutely nothing, but we did establish a dialogue that sought to educate and share - that beats the hell out of shooting each other.

With the wide open availability of ideas, this world is changing - for better or for worse is up to us. We can follow the path of China and try to restrict who's talking and what they're saying, but that has never, and will never work.

Freedom is the responsibility of every man, woman and child who was blessed to have been born into freedom. Those that would have us cut and run in Iraq are ready to deny this tenet. We can not stand by and let Islamic-radicals bring more terror to this nation, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

If not now, when? If not us, who else?

I could easily supply you with liberal answers to those questions, but for the time being I think I'll just wait and see if any liberals care to reply with their own answers.

Until next time - may God bless.