Why I Do This - Meet the Editor

    Flash back to the second Clinton Administration, around mid-1997.  I was what many today would call a Libertarian. I watched FOX News. I believed in "getting the government out of the way". Taxes were theft and regulation an unnecessary and expensive burden on private enterprise.  Companies could do anything better than the government without a doubt. Clinton was a terrible President and Reagan had been a great one. Naiveté was my forte.

    That all changed during the first George W Bush Administration.  My eyes were opened to the amount of misinformation that is out there. Half-truths and outright lies being used to keep the average person voting against their better interest. Watching our leaders lie us into a budget-busting and wholly unnecessary war to complete an agenda was a stomach turning mind opening experience.

    I was complicit in this charade because I bought into the lies. I voted for George W Bush both times. In 2000 it was because I felt that Al Gore could be trusted less.  In 2004 it was because it felt like "Better the devil you know" was the best option.  John Kerry seemed like a weak candidate with no backbone and no principles.  Looking back I realize that this viewpoint, at least in the 2000 election was potentially colored by my flawed perceptions.

    During this time I learned that one of the biggest and probably one of the most dangerous issues facing our great nation is the false information campaign that has been carried out for far too long. One that was kicked into high gear in the past 35 years with the goal of undoing the greatest accomplishments of the 20th Century and almost every single step of progress we have made as a country in our history.

    Government has been painted as the enemy by the very people we're electing to serve in it.  We continue to repeat the cycle of electing leaders who only serve to enrich themselves and erode the protections the government is meant to provide and the programs that have been built to serve the common good, interest and general welfare of the average citizen.  We have come to accept that the government is an amorphous entity to be feared rather than the truth.

    That truth is that the government as it was built by our Founding Fathers (men far smarter than many many of us, myself included) is not a disembodied phantom that is out to oppress us.  No, in fact WE are the government. Each and every one of us. Each citizen. Each voter. Politicians are tools that are meant to serve our will, not their own and not that of the few.

{image of painting} Trumbull, John, "Declaration of Independence", 1818, oil on canvas, U.S. Capital, United States of America. 

     I've had no formal education in journalism, or government, or Constitutional law. I am but an ordinary citizen as many of you who will read this are.  However, that both doesn't matter and is entirely the point.  The Internet presents an unprecedented chance to learn if you open your eyes. To engage, lead and inspire if you make an effort.

    So with this site, I have gathered a handful of like minded individuals to present not a blog but an Internet magazine of sorts.  To present fact-based journalistic writings to help do our part to overcome the mountain of lies that exists out there. It is a personal mission to help as many as I can see that we can be better and do better for ourselves and for each other when it comes to our government and our politics.

    We no longer need to be divided, we never needed to be.  The divisions are false, manufactured and intended to keep us distracted so that those that convince us to elect them can continue to make money off of our ignorance and disinterest.  I know many will remain blind and not accept the facts. Realizing you have been snowed, admitting you have been wrong is a most difficult task. Yet we must. For ourselves, for each other, for our future. Hopefully the ones that we do reach will be able to pay it forward, to go and do their part to help spread the message. The truth is powerful. The truth is freedom. The truth will overcome.

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Image References

"Image of Secretary of State John Kerry" United States Department of State, Public Domain, http://www.state.gov/secretary/photo/index.htm

"Presidential Portraits, Presidents Ronald Reagan George H.W. Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, and George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore",  Executive Office of the President of the United States, Public Domain, https://www.whitehouse.gov/1600/Presidents

Trumbull, John, "Declaration of Independence" 1818; placed 1826, Rotunda, U.S. Capital, oil on canvas, Architect of the Capital: Explore Capital Hill, http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/historic-rotunda-paintings/declaration-independence