Day: May 25, 2016

I have had enough.

I’m blaming the media whole hog for everything that is happening in our current political climate. We have a media system that is so hungry for salacious news and so utterly ill equipped to deal with it that we are left with a near certainty: Donald Trump will be the next president of these (formerly) United States and it will result in our country being further demonized in the international community and downgraded from a credit standpoint, because we can no longer be trusted to guide the ship as is.

I’m serious. Things are going to get worse and the media is going to make it worse because they don’t know how to act. I (foolishly) flipped on CNN and happened to catch an interview with a top Trump advisor and Dem. hot shot Austin Goolsbee. When Goolsbee said that Trump had repeatedly made attacking statements against women and hispanics the Trump aid–straight faced–said ‘When?’

I kid you not. What really bothered me is that the reporter mediating this conversation/interview did not follow up at all. That there is the real crime of this whole thing. The media is not doing their job because they don’t know how to deal with the stonewall nonsense of the Trump campaign.

Still, that was not the focus. The focus was Hillary Clinton’s emails and the violence of Trump protestors. The focus was on the people who won’t or cannot defend themselves. If you follow pro-white blogs (like I occasionally do) you will see an uptick in activity and support for the movement and that movement is centered around Donald Trump and his unwillingness to be PC. Things are getting worse and the media kind of loves it. Why? Because that creates an opportunity for more news and more story and they can tell the story, regardless of where it leads us and without bearing any of the responsibility.

The average person is a follower. The average American is a follower. We vote based on party for the most part (if we vote at all) and we get our information from a media that we deem to trust because other people who we do trust told us to. But what if that media is wrong? What if that media is generating a story that is more about their fear and unpreparedness than one that is based cold hard evidence and the preponderance of that evidence.

We are headed in a bad direction. Make America Great Again indeed. We do that by being a better more inclusive people, not by doing whatever it is we are headed towards now.

We arrived at Changing Hands a few minutes before the event was scheduled to start. Joe Hill was in town to read from his new release The Fireman. I’m at the register watching my girlfriend pick up the book when she turns to me with a smile and directs me to turn around. The man hunched over behind me looks like an almost young Stephen King. He’s wrapped up in the local swag, picking out tee shirts, books marks, and all things Changing Hands. He is Joe Hill.

The writer hung out a bit longer, looking around the store and just being a shopper and fan of books and bookstores. Finally he looked up and said to a store employee, “Do I need to go on right now?” A moment later the man walked in front of a crowd to raucous applause.

It was those moments before he ‘went on’ that I found the most inspiring. For Hill, it is still a ride he is on, and he is still full of wonder. That is the part I want to hold on most of all as a writer. I want to stay full of wonder. I want to be about the journey and the fans and the stories that come from my stories and the fun and experiences. I want to love the writing and be surprised at what stories spill forth.

I still want to write.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. There are two realities of work: That of those who don’t take work home with them and that of those who do. I live in the second reality and recognize that those in the first can really separate from work and as such fail to understand why one would be thinking about or God forbid doing work once off the clock.
2. Microsoft 10: Skynet Edition
3. How do they make soda look so damn appealing on TV? I want a sprite. I hate Sprite.
4. Why doesn’t the right to bear arms apply to high explosives and portable nukes?