I find it really annoying that so many articles and posts have a title that begins with the word why.  Is it just the tech industry that does this?  Does journalism school no longer teach how to write a headline?  Did these people even go to school?  Do they think that if they put the premise of the article in the form of a question as the title that they will win a prize?

I have noticed a strange yet fitting juxtaposition of events in my Twitter stream lately. I have been following the Occupy Wallstreet movement (#ows), Quinn Norton (@quinnnorton) and Xeni Jardin (@xeni) among others, and @RealTimeWWII which is an account that livetweets the Second World War, as it happens on this date and time in 1939.

The thing that I can not stop thinking about is how eerily similar these events are even though they are separated by 72 years. The protests of today here in the US and the demonstrations of early WWII in Europe both stand in stark contrast to the ideals that prompted the movements and the tear gas and rifle butts that were used to silence them.

I am not trying to make veiled inferences as to the ideology of the people in power today. I don’t think we can blindly draw lines in the sand and declare anyone on one side or the other as wrong. This kind of thinking has clearly gotten us nowhere in the last 72 years. What I am saying is that the events that I “see” daily on Twitter and any number of other social/new media sites, events that are largely ignored by main stream media, are events that frighten me. Yes, I said it. I am a middle aged, white male, over six feet tall and I am afraid. I am afraid for my children, myself and the country that I love.

Let me be clear. I have no fear of the protestors, no matter how smelly or how poorly they seem to communicate when CNN bothers to turn their cameras on them. I fear the clueless reactions of the local, state and federal governments that seem to think that inalienable rights come to a halt when it becomes inconvenient to them. I fear the lethargy and careless attitude of what seems to be the majority of the American people that pay more attention the kind of shoe their favorite celebrity wears rather than spend even a moment learning about the ideals and events that founded this country.

There is a silver lining. A lingering hope, if you will. Fear, with all it’s negative connotations, can be an awesome motivator.

surrealism:

Second Creation by Thomas Bossert, 2011. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 140 cm.

I contemplate whether or not I should post this question to quora.com, “Is Mike Arrington a douchebag”. Yea, I know the answer may be obvious but then again maybe he only does it because he gets so much attention for it.

a picture taken with the chrome netbook’s built-in camera. 

Now that I think of it, I could use a little rest and recuperation.