My Blogging Career, Phase II

It's early Saturday morning and I'm sitting in an auto garage waiting room. It's time to blog. I actually blog all the time in my head, but never seem to have time to write it down. For now, a few rambling thoughts:

The Risks

Words are powerful. My writing career started with my high school newspaper. The assistant principal called me into his office to review an editorial I wrote. We discussed it, I argued my points, and I won. Little did I know that a year later the same newspaper would make national news over a censorship court case.

I loved journalism and spent four years on my college newspaper, where I worked my way up to editor-in-chief. Controversy was my life. Sparring with the administration was part of the job. No fluff pieces from me.

I continued my journalism after college, where I started as a newspaper reporter. By age 22 I was editor of a small town newspaper. I quickly learned that one wrong word could get people upset and even get you sued. So, when our current crap president constantly screams "fake news," he is making a lie out of thin air. The truth is, as a reporter I strived to get things correct. If I screwed up there was the embarrassment of having to run a correction or even legal threats.

In 2004 I began my life as a blogger, which I'll talk more about later. In 2010 I wrote a blog critical of religion and posted it on Facebook. The family sent my oldest daughter to talk to me, and she said, "you're upsetting grandma." No one confronted me directly but I felt that I was being ostracized by family members for several years. Just for the record, I believe religion is toxic, and I make no apology if that hurts someone's feelings.

During my blogging I also had to constantly worry about employment. I am a strong environmentalist and I worked in an industry full of conservative small business owners, who felt that the Republican Party was best for them. It wouldn't take too much digging to find that I am a pro-green political progressive. I make no apologies.

All the time you hear in the news about someone getting fired for posting something on Twitter or Facebook. Again, words are powerful and what you write in the Internet world will go everywhere and will never go away. Just yesterday I learned that a close friend of mine is being threatened by a neo Nazi for saying something negative about "white people." Well, I'll go ahead and say it - white people suck. They are arrogant and walk around with a sense of entitlement. 

So, here I am in 2018, and I really need to start blogging more, and not worry about the risks. Having lost my old job and having lost my wife, I have little to lose. It's not that what I'm saying is bad or wrong, it's just that I get sick of people constantly ignoring the obvious because of political correctness or because it's "no big deal." I always want to be the boy who screams, "the Emperor has no clothes."

Toad the Blogger

In 2003 I had a year of epiphanies, and in 2004 I decided to start writing them down. After all, I had been a writer since third grade. My middle school allowed me to take creative writing as an independent study, and I continued my writing throughout high school. Writing was and is in my blood. So, I began to blog.

As I began blogging I acquired a group of loyal followers and made friends with other bloggers. Many evenings I would come home from work and spend several hours working on a single blog post. I had thoughts and feelings inside me that needed to come out. I started really thinking about our screwed-up world and began putting my observations in writing.

During my blogging I became friends with a fellow blogger who was a prolific writer. I really enjoyed his articles. But then he took a dark turn. He was in an unhappy marriage and he began to write about his pre-marriage sexual forays. He even told me that he had some women followers who were getting off on his writings. One day his mother-in-law found his blog and he disappeared. I finally heard from him and learned about his story. His marriage was in ruins.

In this current time of political sensitivity and "snowflakes," you have to be more careful about what you write, or at least willing to accept more consequences. Political correctness and counter political correctness are out of control. 

Sadly, blogging is now old fashioned and I don't seem to be getting my old followers back. People don't read much anymore, or they are so desensitized and beaten that they just don't care about anything. The focus for most people these days is quick gratification. Blogging was replaced somewhat by Facebook, and now Twitter and Snapchat. Most people now only seem to process information in brief soundbites. Society is being dumbed down into nothingness.

The Future

I lost my job of 26 years and had to take a huge pay cut to get reemployed. I am struggling for survival. I have to worry about things that I've never had to before, like keeping up with bills and health insurance. The future for me looks bleak. So many of my friends have lost their wonderful jobs and are underemployed or unemployed. When you hit your 50s the work world dumps you, and you have to spend the rest of your life trying to squeeze out a few dollars from the economy, to survive until you can get Social Security and Medicare. It sort of sucks.

I Must Keep Writing

I spent so many years cultivating my writing skills, yet I now work in the security industry where my talent sees little use. In my younger years I started six novels, but always ran out of steam and never finished one. I was an editor for 26 years, and worked on a teen newspaper, parenting publications, and industry trade magazines. It's sad that all this skill and practice will go to the grave with me, or that I will never write the Great American Novel. 

Purpose

My theme for blogging has always been "saving the world." I like to examine the various issues in our world and show the hypocrisy and problems with various behaviors. I proudly have four blogs, plus an aggregator where I combine all blog posts. Here are my blogs:

Letters To Pluto - Personal reflection.

The Second Sun - The study of delusions and my personal soapbox.

The Singularity - Social behavior.

We Live on a Planet - Environmentalism and sustainability.

Oh My Todd - Aggregator for all my blogs

I write because I enjoy it. I write for therapy and relaxation. I write so that I can record my journal and the evolution of my awareness and knowledge. While I've lost my audience, I still enjoy writing for others. I always have this secret hope that my blog will inspire people in ways that make the world a better place. 

A couple of years ago I started to question WHY I should try to save the world. Over the past decade I've become increasingly disappointed and jaded toward my fellow human beings. I began thinking, "why does the Universe care if this little green and blue dot is destroyed? There is no one out there to care." And I used to think it was humanity's destiny to populate the Universe. Why? So that we can just fuck up more planets? No, humans are the most destructive and disgusting animal on Earth, and they need to be quarantined. 

In 2015, right after my divorce, a lovely young lady came into my life and she really loves animals, especially dogs. And I mean she REALLY loves animals. She gave me the clarity to see a new purpose in life and gave me a new purpose. I now see that the purpose of life is to save this planet from ourselves, out of respect for the other animals that also call Earth home. The diversity of creatures is amazing, and it's up to us to protect them. I know that other people have the calling to help their fellow human, and that's beautiful as well. But, my particular calling is to use my writing skills and talent to help animals and the environment. I think I'm too angry and hurt to do much social work now, although I know it's the right thing to do. One day soon I know I may need the help of a kindhearted soul, and I will appreciate them very much.