Recently the pastor of my church commented that I write
because I have to – not for money or prestige, but for the saying of ideas as
they are created, to keep order in my mind, etc. You get the idea.
I thought about that for several days. Once when we had
started a local newspaper and I was reporting in it weekly, writing columns of
the same frequency, and pulling together information from dozens of writers, I
encountered a publishing problem which forced me to quit the paper on
principle. For nearly 2 months I did not have a single thought published. And
it weighed heavily on my mind!
It took some weeks before I realized I had the need to write
and to share the writing with others. The public act, by the way, is not an ego
thing. It is an accountability concept. If my thoughts are worthwhile, they
must be logical and well thought out. If not they will collapse upon
themselves. I will be held up to ridicule. I will be accountable for what I
think and write.
Thinking alone in one’s mind has but only the inner
accountability. Exposure to the public creates a much more demanding standard
of performance for the writer. One is serious; the other is musing.
When the local group of volunteers proposed creating our own
newspaper without the offending publisher, I jumped at the opportunity. We've
been at it for nearly 5 years now on our own. And I was able to resume regular
published writings.
Along the way I created this blog – second anniversary is
October 4, 2013. The blog started out as a 7-day per week update but now is 5
days per week with a Saturday Thought for the Day offering. Nearly 500,000
words have been published here, almost enough for 3 books!
Yes I am compelled to write and to give my thoughts to
readers in an open marketplace of ideas. Mulling over the meaning of life is
one thing, but more importantly is the need to draw attention to needs within
our society that require consideration and assistance.
Like this one: Norman
Mailer, author (1923-2007) had this thought to share:
“To blame the poor for subsisting
on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member
of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it
is likely that there’s more idleness and abuse of the government favors among
the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.”
Think about it. We all pay for the infrastructure used by
those who develop wealth for themselves, yet they claim they do not use the
wealth of the land to create their own wealth. Instead they claim they put
their own assets at risk to create jobs for others. The truth is very much in
between.
And let us not forget that labor hired by those same
capitalists spend their earnings buying their employers goods, keeping the
cycle alive and well.
This quote is apt at this point:
“If you want people off welfare,
make minimum wage high enough to bring them out of poverty.” ~Living Blue in a Red State
Amen! I am all for capitalism but its engine is fueled by
personal greed. It needs temperance to be just and fair. That’s where the
conscience of a nation needs to stand up both in its charity and governance.
Oh when will that be?
Lest we forget this basic principle, here’s what President
Obama said recently:
“The arc of the moral universe
may bend toward justice, but it does not bend on its own.”
September 3, 2013
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