First Things First

This month's update features a few more pictures have been added to Vista Drive, mostly to the color section.  They represent the first batch taken with my new digital camera.  The pictures are noticeably sharper than those posted before.  Also, coming June 20th is a new issue of American Bliss to read.  If you missed it, check out the new serial page featuring the online anthology called Snapshots.  Don't miss it.  Enjoy the update.

Afterthoughts : Walking Home Late

Years ago my friend Omri had a birthday party.  I think he turned 11 years old, but I can't remember.  The neat thing about his party was that it was held at a local Chuck E. Cheese's.  Which, if you didn't know, are pizza parlors filled with video games.  Video games being the greatest thing invented for kids the age of 11.  Well, kinda.  On this occasion I had the displeasure of walking home alone, in the dark.  It wasn't very far from Omri's house to my house.  It was probably no more than a five minute walk, less if I ran.  But, to know the street that I had to take to get home was to know a dark foreboding street.  At least it felt like that to me at the time.  At one end of the street, close to my friend's house, was the front of my elementary school.  The other end of the street was my street, and home.  Between that was this no-man's land of darkness.  On the one side the freeway, on the other the elementary school playground.  In between, the darkness.

I was at my friend's house, since I drove over to the Chuck E. Cheese's with him.  But, now that last quarter mile to my house was going to be the hardest.  I stalled, I tried to stay for as long as I could.  But finally I had to go home in the dark.  In retrospect, I should have called my mother to come pick me up.  But, I didn't.  I thought about going the long way around the school, which would have made the journey more than twice as long.  I thought better of that because that way was also dark, and longer.

I paused for a second outside my friend's house.  I knew that I had better face my fears and get to moving.  I walked quickly down to the back of the school cafeteria.  From there I could see the my neighbor's house lights in the distance.  I walked the same way I had walked home on so many days.  There weren't any surprises that might occur, but my over imaginative mind played tricks on me.  I pictured myself in a solitary forest, with the sounds of wolves in the distance.  It was crazy to think such things, living in the middle of the city.  Yet, I thought them.  All the way home.  I think it was the fastest I ever ran.  When I got to my gate, I looked back to the street I had just flown across.  I was thankful that my thoughts weren't as fast as my feet.

Editorial : A Declaration of Freedom

The time has come for those who stand silent to declare their stance on current political, and social, events.  This nation was founded on ideals of freedom.  Among these ideals is one that is paramount for any democracy, if it is to survive, and thrive, the freedom of speech.  The right for an individual to speak their mind, be it thought of as aberrant, vulgar, or indecent, by the majority of the people, must be protected completely and absolutely.  For it is more important to secure the right of such extreme forms of speech precisely because they are extreme.  Because a free, and open, society can only survive when all forms of speech are free to be spoken, and exercised.  To censor, or attempt to mollify such speech, is tantamount to censoring all forms of expression.  History has taught us that those who seek to subvert governments first turn their eyes towards censorship.  A free and open political debate is necessary in order for an electorate to remain informed, and educated, to what is being done in their name by political representatives.  When representatives deem it necessary to curtail the right of individuals to articulate, and proclaim, a descending point of view, then the right has been stripped of its meaning, and purpose.  Censorship is the first step towards the erosion, and eventual abolishment, of all unalienable rights.  It is not within the purpose of a representative government to eliminate freedoms entitled to individuals by birth.  It is not in a representative government's powers to alter, or abolish, these freedoms.  No sanctioned representative government must be allowed to curtail rights given to them by a higher purpose as birthright.

Today there is a wave of censorship based in fundamentalism, and justified by a supposed need for protection, a call to patriotism, and spiritual salvation.  All of which are subjective, and defy universal definitions.  Fundamentalists wish to see a majority bend to the wishes of a small group of religious zealots.  They wish to tear at the heart of rights spelled out long ago.  For they seek to serve a different agenda, one based in different ideals and beliefs.  Ideals and beliefs that are diametrically opposed to those spelled out in the Bill of Rights.  Their machinations are both subversive, and detrimental, to democracy.  If anyone challenges their actions, they wrap themselves in the American flag, point fingers, and throw accusations of being unpatriotic, and un-American.  They cloak themselves in ultra-Americanism.

The time has come to declare that we the people of this nation do not wish to be told what to say, think, or believe, by a militant cancer that seeks to rot the country's founding ideals.  The time has come to rejoice in the liberties so many have fought for, and relish those freedoms.  Practice them to their full measure, and stand up to those who would take them away, or impose limits on them.  One can not breath the air of freedom fully, as long as there are those who would pollute it with censorship.

Etcetera : No Need for Memorials

Many of us had Monday May 31st off from work or school because of Memorial Day.  For the majority of American's the day is another day to shop, to watch TV, or to travel.   What it isn't, but what it should be, is a day of resolve.  A day in which we should resolve ourselves to never have a need for memorials.

There must come a time in which we grow up as a species and resolve our differences without having to kill each other.  That time much come not decades from now, but in days, hours, minutes.  Because throughout history war has come much easier than peace.  The greater challenge therefor is peace.  Those who succumb to war are weak.  Weak minded, weak in resolve, weak in compassion, and weak in humanity.  A life is something to be cherished, not thrown away by casting it into the fires of war.  Yet, history has shown that the consuming fire is where our leaders take us.  It is a path that serves no one, but the weak.

So in the days after this Memorial day think.  Think of those who fell on the field of battle.  Think of the sacrifice they made.  Finally, think of what you can do to assure a day without war.