Hope for the New Year
Happy New Year! Its 2012! A whole fresh set of months lies before us all with all the wonderful possibilities we can imagine... So what are you going to do with it?
Me? Well I plan to write a new novel... One is already underway. I should have the first draft done in a few months and then begin the long process of rewrites and revisions. The audio version of The Prank (my first novel and winner of the 2010 Indy Award for Best Young Adult Fiction... Available on Amazon, Kindle and iBooks) is being recorded right now. So hopefully soon you can give it a listen off of Audible.com.
I hope to continue to produce fun comics and thoughtful commentary here in Bogworld. Hopefully you will all show your appreciation for all this free entertainment by checking out the sponsors that appear on this site now and then. Thats how this website stays alive.
Obviously with all this going on, I do not see 2012 as the last year of human existence as the ancient Mayan’s and the History Channel might have you believe. I am more of an optimist than that.
I believe people can change things. I believe people can devise incredible means to overcome and survive just about anything if we all get past our petty differences and work together.
Of course hoping people will overcome their petty differences in the face of a global crisis might be a bigger obstacle than the global crisis itself. But I think were getting close to a tipping point in American history. I think a lot of us are all getting really tired of political nonsense. Not just Republican or Democrat, but ALL political nonsense. And we are all going to start demanding more from our media outlets and our leaders to do whats right for people... not for their own financial gains.
Why am I optimistic about this?
This week there was one example of the power that still remains in our hands. This week Verizon announced they were going to start changing “convenience fees” to folks who do their transactions with Verizon over the web. There was an outcry of Verizon users threatening to end their contracts and go to a different carrier if Verizon was really going to charge them for... well.. really just charge people for nothing. The topic spread like wildfire across the internet and Verizon was flooded with calls from customers threatening to drop them. By the end of the week Verizon changed their minds and the convenience fees will not be added to anyone’s bills.
What does this customer uproar over a fee have to do with the rest of the world?
It means something good is happening in this country. It means the people are taking back the power from corporations and government. It means were using the new tools we have like the web and social networking in a positive way to call out scams and to let people know about bad service. This is the first step towards demanding our media outlets are held to a higher standard of truth. We’re able to tell our governing officials in big powerful ways that we are their bosses and not the other way around.
The one bit of truth that seems to get glossed over in all the extreme right or left wing dialogue is that MOST of us live our lives in the middle. The vast majority of us have opinions and beliefs that straddle both sides. And the middle majority has all the power if we start flexing our muscles and showing our numbers. Extreme right and left wingers tend to be really loud minorities. And by being so loud and controversial they get all the press. But the majority of us are in the middle and we are starting to discover the real issues that we really care about: Namely finding a way to support and rebuild the middle class in America. Strengthening communities. Safer neighborhoods. Better schools for our kids and better employment opportunities for our adults. Reinvesting in infrastructure. This isn’t rocket science. We all want basically the same things.
I hope we see Americans stop being pitted against other Americans for believing different things. America was built on the freedom that we should all be able to believe in different things. Its time we start focusing on the things we all really need. Not the things that divide us.
I do not believe 2012 is the end of everything. I think it will be the beginning of some long overdue changes.
Happy New Year.
Me? Well I plan to write a new novel... One is already underway. I should have the first draft done in a few months and then begin the long process of rewrites and revisions. The audio version of The Prank (my first novel and winner of the 2010 Indy Award for Best Young Adult Fiction... Available on Amazon, Kindle and iBooks) is being recorded right now. So hopefully soon you can give it a listen off of Audible.com.
I hope to continue to produce fun comics and thoughtful commentary here in Bogworld. Hopefully you will all show your appreciation for all this free entertainment by checking out the sponsors that appear on this site now and then. Thats how this website stays alive.
Obviously with all this going on, I do not see 2012 as the last year of human existence as the ancient Mayan’s and the History Channel might have you believe. I am more of an optimist than that.
I believe people can change things. I believe people can devise incredible means to overcome and survive just about anything if we all get past our petty differences and work together.
Of course hoping people will overcome their petty differences in the face of a global crisis might be a bigger obstacle than the global crisis itself. But I think were getting close to a tipping point in American history. I think a lot of us are all getting really tired of political nonsense. Not just Republican or Democrat, but ALL political nonsense. And we are all going to start demanding more from our media outlets and our leaders to do whats right for people... not for their own financial gains.
Why am I optimistic about this?
This week there was one example of the power that still remains in our hands. This week Verizon announced they were going to start changing “convenience fees” to folks who do their transactions with Verizon over the web. There was an outcry of Verizon users threatening to end their contracts and go to a different carrier if Verizon was really going to charge them for... well.. really just charge people for nothing. The topic spread like wildfire across the internet and Verizon was flooded with calls from customers threatening to drop them. By the end of the week Verizon changed their minds and the convenience fees will not be added to anyone’s bills.
What does this customer uproar over a fee have to do with the rest of the world?
It means something good is happening in this country. It means the people are taking back the power from corporations and government. It means were using the new tools we have like the web and social networking in a positive way to call out scams and to let people know about bad service. This is the first step towards demanding our media outlets are held to a higher standard of truth. We’re able to tell our governing officials in big powerful ways that we are their bosses and not the other way around.
The one bit of truth that seems to get glossed over in all the extreme right or left wing dialogue is that MOST of us live our lives in the middle. The vast majority of us have opinions and beliefs that straddle both sides. And the middle majority has all the power if we start flexing our muscles and showing our numbers. Extreme right and left wingers tend to be really loud minorities. And by being so loud and controversial they get all the press. But the majority of us are in the middle and we are starting to discover the real issues that we really care about: Namely finding a way to support and rebuild the middle class in America. Strengthening communities. Safer neighborhoods. Better schools for our kids and better employment opportunities for our adults. Reinvesting in infrastructure. This isn’t rocket science. We all want basically the same things.
I hope we see Americans stop being pitted against other Americans for believing different things. America was built on the freedom that we should all be able to believe in different things. Its time we start focusing on the things we all really need. Not the things that divide us.
I do not believe 2012 is the end of everything. I think it will be the beginning of some long overdue changes.
Happy New Year.