Perhaps A Few Contributions

I do not believe that very many of us have very many original thoughts.  Nor do I pretend that anything I may add will be groundbreaking or earth shattering. 

Rather, my sense is that the fast pace of life we lead leaves us little time to reflect.  We end up with the opinions of others that are second hand and often not well founded. My hope in these pages is to reflect on things we all already know and in doing so to discuss matters that are more relevant for us in our daily lives, and explain them in ways that are accessible.

In those daily lives, so fast paced, with so many demands, we get our information in small portions, quickly delivered.  The bias is inevitable, even inherent, even intended.  Then that bias gets magnified by the commercial press – liberal media, conservative media – all competing for viewers.

On the other hand, we have the intellectual elite.  They write in ways inaccessible to the rest of us.  Their writing assumes a deep background on the subject at hand, they write in ways that communicate with each other.  Their discussions are more fact based and more well developed – if only we could read them.

As a result, we end up with a misconstrued view of what is happening around us.  Take the case of addiction.  What image comes immediately to mind?  The people living under the highway?  That is because a commercial press gives us that image.  Would you be surprised to know that less than 400,000 of the 40 million alcoholics and drug addicts populate that image?  So where are the addicts and alcoholics?  They are in front of us every day, hidden, and we think they are under the highway.

The pieces that are included here will attempt to provide an accessible but better-informed approach to a variety of topics.  Your feedback, your similar articles will be welcomed.  Perhaps we can help provide a more informed background for the rest of us.

Gene