Some musings on 1st amendment rights, hate speech, and consequences: The 1st amendment guarantees us (US Citizens) the right of “free speech” but many in today’s USA do not seem to grasp what it means and how/when it applies. Freedom of speech is written into our constitution to protect citizens from action by the government
I don’t know that I can pinpoint an exact catalyst for becoming a writer. It seems that I’ve been creating and telling stories my whole life. I do know that the idea that I could write actual books with my name on the covers came in my teens. It didn’t start with books, obviously. First
I grew up in Upstate New York, where the very first signs that spring was on the horizon were the daffodils that poked intrepid little heads up through the snows that wouldn’t yet melt for a few weeks (or more). For the longest time, daffodils were my favorite flowers because of that, and they still
Martin Luther King day, 2021 I don’t often speak about Dr. King on this day we set aside to honor him because I would rather the microphone is passed to those who are still fighting the battle that took his life. It seems disingenuous to me the parrot his words, no matter how wise or
Like most Americans, my attention has been firmly on our nation’s capitol this week, as law enforcement investigates the uprising at the capitol and congress worked to hold the president responsible for inciting that violence. I’ll admit that it has not been great for my creativity or productivity! That said, I did finish the zero
On January 6, 2021 the United States of America came under attack. This attack did not come from some foreign enemy. This attack did not come from radical Islam. This attack did not come from “antifa”. This attack was perpetrated by our own homegrown, right-wing, “Christian” radicals. This attack was enabled by law enforcement. This
Do you remember when 2021 seemed like the distant future, impossible to fathom as anything than other a dystopian post-apocalyptic world filled with robber barons and highwaymen? And yet, here we are. Then again, 2020 was something of an apocalypse and the world is lilting ever more toward dystopia. In the enduring words of the
I don’t know about you, but this entire year has been ten years long and filled with awfulness, from people proving that we’ve become a selfish, greedy nation that doesn’t care about the less fortunate to the government abdicating its duty to take care of its people to the actual pandemic that has killed nearly
Today is the first day of over a week off of the day job. This means I get to write every day until the words stop flowing. This pleases me. Tomorrow will be time spent with my immediate family, who are the only people I have spent any time with at all during this pandemic.
I am, admittedly, a lazy sort of Pagan. I keep an altar and I light candles and burn incense on the holidays and sometimes at other times, but I don’t go all out like I used to when I was newly arrived in pagandom. My daily meditation practice is pretty lax in the best of
