Amy Goodman, Afghanistan and Andrew Romanoff

Know what I want to talk about? Wikileaks. I turned on Democracy Now! this evening and watched the founder of WikiLeaks talk about the recent and incredible leak of over 91,000 documents from the US Military concerning the war in Afghanistan- including documents reporting civilian deaths that we (the righteous american people) didn't hear about.

First things first, I must admit I am really drawn to the fact that Wikileaks does not take sole responsibility for exploring these documents, but instead encourages amateur journalists and concerned people of all types to help in reading through these vast number of documents to uncover any new information their eyes may have overlooked. The director, Julian Assange seems like a phenomenal man. He talked more than once about democracy and I'll argue that the best democracies rely upon the active participation of the people- exactly what wikileaks promotes. Wikileaks, based in Sweden, is also required by law to keep the identities of those who engage in confidential document sharing an absolute secret. On the other hand, the United States military has launched an investigation into whoever shared the documents. Come on, America, someone had to share. Amy Goodman's show always gives me a bit of hope for my world, and today's show didn't disappoint. Assange mentioned that because the leaks (obviously) came from individuals in the U.S. military who felt something was drastically wrong with concealing these documents, it is simply a sign that there are Americans who are concerned about the state of their nation and the world as well. Considerate Americans...who knew?!

On another absolutely different political tangent, I ought to mention that democratic Senate candidate from Colorado sold his house off to get some more money for his campaign this primary season. Super. My household is split between Bennet and Romanoff votes, but this election season, I'm siding with Romanoff. After initially pledging my support to incumbent (though he was appointed and not elected) Michael Bennet, I decided I needed a bit of a change and perhaps the idea of voting for a career politician is not always bad. For many, "career politician" is a swear word, but in the case of Andrew Romanoff, it means he's dedicated his life to making a difference, being a force of change in the Colorado community and the American community. Sure, I guarantee he's got some selfish motives in his quest for Senatorship, but don't we all?

Tomorrow: Boulder, Boys Boys Boys and Balanced Budgets

The Beginning

For all the times I've started blogs, you'd think I'd be a successful blogger by now. By now, I must be approaching the number of journals I've purchased, with every intention of becoming a journaler. While I've long ago given up on the journal, I'm still holding out for this blogging thing. I think I've nailed down the problem to my lack of blogging motivation....

1. Too personal. I've tried to do a diary blog before, but throwing that out on the web just seems so wrong. If I cant write it in a private journal, I ought not write it on the world wide web.
2. Too newsy. Don't get me wrong, I love the news, but I cant simply write editorials 365 days a year. Or 36 days a year, for that matter
3. Too Trendy. I SO want to be a hipster and a trend started, but I'm just not. While I slowly and painfully come to terms with that, I've got to think of something else to do.

I'm all but convinced the three bullets above are what have kept me from blogging effectively. It also might be because I have not yet made it habit. I vow to blog at least one post for the next five days and see where it goes from there. Why? Because....

1. I'm not half bad at constructing sentences and paragraphs and papers. I can write. But I'm pretty sure I can write better. And you know, practice makes perfect.
2. I need the practice. I told my boss today that the internet and I have our creative differences. He promptly reminded me that I work for a social networking company. Which means, the fact that I don't understand the first thing about HTML equates to a sin of the highest offense.
3. The internet is reality. And all the cool kids are blogging. And I've always wanted to be a cool kid.

So here goes nothing. Even if no one reads what I write, I ought to write. I'm not holding back this time. Let this be the beginning.