Thinking Outside The Blog

I want to make an impromptu update to my sporadic journal, here. I’ve been busy writing in my opinion to the local newspaper recently. I had written an article for their editorial page once before but I don’t really remember what it was about and truthfully I don’t care. But I did have one published on Sunday February 25, 2007 that I particularly enjoyed. I even received a call from a woman congratulating me on the article. The article was as follows but the italicized part was edited out of the publication:
“Sometimes in war, we can be as guilty through our inaction as those who act too rashly. On a daily basis the newspapers report on car bombings, suicide bombings and gunfights killing people in Iraq, yet what impact do they have anymore on the early morning commuters on their way to work? The story remains nearly the same but the death toll changes. Human lives have become mere numbers in a war becoming increasingly violent and unpopular. In the beginning of the war, these numbers shocked us as we read intently but now we graze to more fertile articles with more “relevance” such as Brittany Spears shaving her head. This war has grown mainly in part to our reluctancy to open our eyes to the horrors it produces. There’s something wrong when these stories of suffering have become so common that they get buried on page 4 dwarfed by the 4-legged duckling article. If we saw what was happening with open minds, I could only hope that the war and its victims would become more than segues between who won the Daytona 500 and the weather. If you really want to help our troops, bring them home where they belong.”
Now, to clarify a few things: 1) Brittany Spears—ex-pop star—did shave her head in a mental breakdown and it was plastered all over the news for weeks (who cares?). 2) The Daytona 500—a car race in which a few dozen engines on steroids are driven around in an oval for hours and hours—was the cover of the front page (you can tell by now that I am losing my patience). 3) And yes—there was an article about a four-legged duckling that was of equal size and adjacent to the article on a bombing in Iraq that ruined the lives of innocent people forever (perhaps I am sounding a little cynical…but what the F@#K?!).
Also, I wrote another editorial to the same newspaper on another issue I feel is important but as of yet has not been published and may never be so here it is:
“This nation was founded on principles commonly taken for granted by today’s generations. If you are reading this article then you are already stepping in the right direction. Our founding fathers forged ideals from challenging the state of politics and standing up for radical views of democracy that were widely unpopular around the world for that time. Today, we rarely question why our standing of superiority in the global spotlight is dimming from international favor and we accept our political faults without realizing that they could have only occurred because we let them. In a democracy, we have the power—the power to think for ourselves, question our leaders’ judgment and involve ourselves in the political process. It is a heavy responsibility placed on the people of a democracy but I feel that we as Americans are up to the challenge. It takes more than a vote on a slip of paper to change the world. We have to educate ourselves and stand up for our rights or they will be taken away from us. And only when things reach a dire and despondent state will we realize that our voices have been silenced.”
In case you haven’t noticed, all editorials must be no more than two-hundred words which is difficult to do considering I could write a novel from all of my political beliefs and satire—which is what I am trying to do. Keep in mind that I am only twenty years old and I am sure I will regret most of what I say now because as my parents tell me, “I will get wiser as I get older.” So, in case I do join the hive in my later years, this is a chronicle of my opinions when I was still sane.