500

This is my 500th blog post. It is one of those times to reflect on things. My first thought is to say thank you to everyone who takes the time to read whatever it is that I choose to write. When I write about sensitive issues like politics or religion it is not my intent to offend. I am sure that happens but this is my forum to express my thoughts. More often than not when I write on those two subjects I am attempting to find out some nugget of truth, some northern star to guide my path. All too often I find none exists. Our politicians talk about the will of the people, when it suits their purpose. If Congress cared about the "will" of the people we would have universal health care, gun control and immigration reform. Better schools, more jobs, rebuilt roads and bridges are also what the people want. We are getting none of those things. Why? Because those in charge only care about our collective will when it suits their purpose or the purpose of those who spend millions getting them elected. Since the Supreme Court determined that money is speech a few people have been able to shout while the rest of us whisper. Wonder who is being heard?

I wanted to thank readers for tolerating my posts about Lily Lu and Candy Mae, parades on Tybee, Squares in Savannah, the Immortal 500, Wormsloe, and the other personal and historic things I find fascinating about the world. BlogSpot keeps track of which posts are viewed and which are the most viewed. One entitled Humor leads the list. Other popular posts have included Johnnie's Vacation and to my surprise Cribben and Sexton. I never know what is going to be popular so I just prattle on about whatever crosses my mind on a day. Sometimes a road sign raises my curiosity about a place. Sometimes and article on the internet. Something in a book or in the newspaper. There always seems to be more to the story and I usually want to know what the rest of the story entails.

I do want to take a minute to talk about Facebook. I am becoming increasingly disenchanted with what goes on there. It seems to have gotten to political and increasingly hateful. I cannot understand the need to make rude and ignorant statements about other folks beliefs, politics, race, religion, or any other personal issues. It seems more and more to be a place of intolerance and hate often disguised as political leanings or religious beliefs. I worry that kids exposed to the virtual anonymity of that will feel a freedom to express that teaches intolerance and hate. The same can be said when you read the comment sections of many news articles. Too much of what is presented as "news" in the past would have been presented as opinion. When I was a young man I don't remember complaints about the liberal or conservative media. The news, perhaps because of my youthful ignorance, did not seem to have a liberal or conservative bias. MSNBC and Fox News didn't exist then. Neither did CNN. The news was just presented as what happened. Truth, it seems to me, has no liberal or conservative bias. Now it seems that in order to get the full story I have to read several news articles from various sources to determine what the truth might be. It seems unfortunate that too many are willing to get all their news from one source or another and never realize there is more to the story than they know. I encourage each of you to take the time to make a well informed decision about issues. Don't believe everything you read even if I wrote it. Take some time and do some research. Issues are complicated and have many sides. You may see something no one else does, a solution no one else has developed.

Thanks for visiting here again and taking the time to read and think. It is always a joy for me to have you stop by for a look.