I’ll approach this initial Posting by answering some questions no one has yet asked but might.
Q. Why are you creating this blog? Aren’t there enough of them already?
A. My guess is that there are probably too many blogs out there. But I’m creating this one anyway, because I think it’s necessary. I’ve gathered a group of excellent writers together who all feel an urgent need to express themselves about the future of the United States of America.
Q. Why the urgency and why now?
A. I grew up in the aftermath of World War 2, the Korean War, and the Communist hysteria of the fifties. On October 26, 1962, I stood on the quad of the Columbia University Campus along with hundreds (maybe thousands, I was too dazed to count) of other students waiting to see if we were going to be nuked along with the rest of New York City as a result of our standoff with the Soviets over Cuba. I experienced the horrors of the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, the Iran hostage crisis and the Israeli-Arab wars of the sixties and seventies. More recently were the financial crashes of 1987 and 2007, nine-eleven, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear brinksmanship of North Korea, the threat of Iran, and the fight against ISIS, all of which have exposed an underbelly of isolationism and bigotry not seen in the United States since the 1930s.
Why now? Because the divisions in our country that were revealed and exacerbated by the 2016 election have left me more fearful about our future than at any time in my seventy-three years.
Q. What difference will this blog make?
A. Maybe none. But the lessons of history are clear: when people who are concerned about the future sit back and do nothing, things invariably get worse. And the lessons of my own life have taught me that standing up for what I believe is right usually produces results beyond anything I imagined.
I’ll let the diverse group of people who agreed to join in this venture introduce and speak for themselves, but here’s what I’m certain we all share in common. If we tell the truth, engage in meaningful, rational dialogue, and relentlessly address everything we perceive as a threat to the principles and values were raised with, we will at least make people think and at most affect their ideas and behavior in positive ways. We will not engage in name-calling or political rhetoric, we will not mock or belittle anyone, and we will respect any opinion presented in that spirit. Maybe we can help identify a meaningful way forward out of the chaos we currently find ourselves in.
