It’s time to take stock of where I am, and where
things stand.
I have turned 76 recently. I am indeed concerned that if something medical
(or worse) were to happen unexpectedly, I would not be able to maintain my
sites and media, and they would have to be taken down, never to return again. So
it’s necessary for the content in itself to “pay for itself” in the sense that
others can use it and show recognition (like, preferably, paying). The “doaskdotell”
domain would expire Dec. 2, 2021 (in 27 months) so I’ve more or less announced
that as a drop-dead date for me to be involved in social and political
commentary – unless I can work with another company or group. And indeed there may be some opportunities,
one of which I expect to explore this weekend and probably in the early fall.
Let me re-iterate what I have going on besides
politics. I do have a screenplay, in a
science fiction setting (like inside an O’Neill cylinder near Titan) that
reiterates, in backstories, the main events of the “do ask do tell” books. I have a novel (social sci-fi) called ‘Angel’s
Brother” which is fully written and which I am analyzing on a database (see
Books blog today). And I have some
musical compositions, piano, including a couple of pretty big ones, which I can
put into performable shape according to some recent advances in composition
software (Apple, Sibelius), and the trade war with China could get in the way.
I expect to have the novel in presentable form for format
third part editing by the end of 1Q 2020, and significant music in performable
shape by the end of 2Q 2020.
That could mean that at some point I don’t touch
politics. Well, do I volunteer? (Can actual service be separated from
proselytizing and fund raising?) Do I support
causes in a public way through organizations?
There are some political theories that say that individualized speech
must always be accompanied by willingness to cooperate in group action, even
protests, if necessary. Otherwise democracy gets hollowed out and left to the
extremes, which is what is going on. I
have not been very responsive to the many pleas I get all the time, partly
because they are often so narrow and so tribal, and partly because there are so
many of them. But non-profits work this
way (begging for solidarity in order to get matching funds) because they have
to, and they are hollowing out with all the tribalism.
The best way, moving forward, to remain involved in
issue might be getting third-party companies to publish op-ed’s by me on topics
that stress lesser known facts or solutions to problems and stay away from parties
and candidates (and away from both Trump-bashing and OAC-bashing). These might be topics like power grid
security or some aspects of climate change.
Or they might have to do with aspects of history (that is LGBT, the early
Internet and early censorship) that I have some specific experience with. For example activists have already forgotten the
history of “don’t ask don’t tell” for gay soldiers in general in fight Trump’s
transgender ban today. Another example would involve exploring the possibility
of citizen sponsorship to help alleviate the immigration border crisis, but then
could I follow through myself with actually doing it? I actually looked at it in 2016-2017 and it
didn’t quite happen. I wound up selling
a house.
(Posted: Thursday, August 29, 2019 at 6 PM EDT)
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