Since I'm not all that familiar with the far reaches of the blogosphere, I have no idea how this blog ranks, as far as consistency is concerned. Although I have never had a very large audience, on occasion it seems (according to Stat Counter) to reach into the 100s on a good day. And then there are days where I am lucky if 12 people show up. Not a problem, from my point of view. I'm still doing this mainly for me, and if I am so lucky as to have an audience, I can only thank the power of the Internet, a newly global communication system that can help each of us connect with others of like interests, if only we reach out.
So that is what I have been doing, for a year and a month. And I am producing entries at the rate of nearly 1.5 per day. I love writing these posts, but I admit this also is my work -- writing -- and it take a lot out of me.
My main hope is that I can shed some light on our time, in real time, and that I can create a digital archive of what it is like to be alive now, early in the 21st Century, that those who follow us may find useful later. I also have a secondary goal, and that is to offer comfort to the broken-hearted, who, like me, have seen their dreams not come true, their creativity trapped, their idealism squelched.
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Today was one of those rare magical days when I got to connect two people who never before had met: Ben Bagdikian, the legendary media critic who is now a very young 87, and Louis Borders, the co-founder of Borders Books and Music, the first superstore.
We had lunch at the Hayes Street Grill, one of this city's very best restaurants. And, I lucked out by ordering soft shell crabs from the Chesapeake Bay, which just arrived here today. The best crab cakes I have ever eaten were those cooked by my brother-in-law, Tom Walko.
His only son, Andrew, is shipping out to Iraq in about a week, and I will be worrying about him along with his dad, and his mom, my youngest sister, Carole. Andrew's commitment to serve our nation presents me with a dilemma.
I believe the invasion of Iraq was one of the worst foreign policy mistakes in the history of this country. Yet, for a young man like Andrew, these geopolitical maneuvers by old men like Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are not really transparent enough that he could possibly make an independent decision.
He is a good man. He loves his family, and none of my young kids have a more loving or attentive cousin. I feel proud that he will be doing his best to protect what he perceives to be our country's best interests.
But he is too young yet to understand that our country has been led unwisely in exactly the wrong direction.
I do not want to lose my precious nephew. I hope Nancy Pelosi, and the other Democratic leaders in Congress will figure out how to restrain this administration's "Masters of War," (Bob Dylan's phrase.)
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