Dave Winer, pretty much the godfather of blogging, has asked people to write something in support of what he calls The Writer’s Web. I’ve been reading Dave’s essays for 25+ years, and it seems he and I are very much of the same opinion on current affairs and politics. So I’m inclined to support his request.
As it turns out, I’m not that far behind Dave in terms of blogging history. (Let me be clear – I’m not a blogging innovator/inventor like Dave – I just jumped on the bandwagon fairly early). My first blog was started in early 2002 using a Dave Winer blogging platform called “Radio Weblogs”. My blog was called “A Still Verdictless Life”, taking the name from the John Mayer song “Why Georgia“. In retrospect, 23 years later, I’d say my life is not quite verdictless but still unresolved.
Since then I’ve written close to a million words online, lately via essays in this WordPress-based blog. Better Late Than Never (BLTN) was originally about travel and photography, and has has evolved to be the platform for me to write about politics, music, current events, and yes, travel and photography. It’s been therapeutic. I write something here almost every day. Sometimes inane, sometimes pithy.
I took a break from online essays (blogging) during my corporate career heyday from 2008-2018. I worked for some politically sensitive companies, and decided I didn’t want the complication of publishing my unfiltered opinions where they could be used against me at work. I have some regrets about that decision, but those years paid the bills.
Here’s an excerpt from ASVL in early 2003. I rescued a little of the content years ago by saving the raw HTML. All the links are broken, but the main content remains.
| Monday, January 06, 2003 |
I can’t say it any better than this. Karlin Lillington writes about the US’s amazing apathy as we lose 200 years’ of personal rights and freedom (from Ireland, no less). So rather than paraphrase, here’s her post. And read the article being linked in the first sentence – it’s a great, disturbing summary. “This piece is being widely blogged and highlights a disturbing truth — that people just do not seem to care that the most basic rights and principles, those which underlie the foundation of the world’s democracies and are deeply interwoven into the US constitution, are being thrown out the door in the vague intention of ‘fighting terrorism’. Today, people of the United States have given up their rights through the “Patriot Act,” the “Homeland Security Act” and the Pentagon’s new system of “Total Information Awareness.” The astonishing thing about this “land of the free” is that most Americans now have no effective rights and do not care. …The government now has the power to enter your home or your computer and secretly record whatever they find without ever having to notify you. They do not even have to obtain a warrant from a publicly accountable judge showing reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed. Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold spoke the following words from the Senate floor on Oct. 11, 2001, when he was the only senator to vote against Attorney General John Ashcroft’s USA Patriot Act: “There is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country where police were allowed to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country where the government is entitled to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your e-mail communications; if we lived in a country where people could be held in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, the government would probably discover more terrorists or would-be terrorists! But that wouldn’t be a country in which we would want to live.” “[[ t e c h n o c u l t u r e ]] comment []7:42:46 AM |
Even back then I was railing against US culture moving relentlessly toward conservatism (now toward authoritarianism). This was written in response to The Patriot Act, a law that should have frightened us just with its name.
So back to the present, yes Dave, I support the Writer’s Web. Been doing it for a long time, and intend to keep on keepin’ on.
[…] The Writer’s Web, aka blogging […]