As we look ahead to 2023 and where we might go with this web site, it is hard not to briefly look back at 2022 and draw some strong analogies to the insight of Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh. Words of wisdom often come from the strangest of places, and the words of A. A. Milne penned in 1926 have echoed down through the years as a common malady of modern societal concerns.
“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it. And then he feels that perhaps there isn’t.”
We could never have visualized ourselves in a situation where one looks at all the nonsense going on, and then tries to make sense of why our nation is going along such a damaging path. There is more destructive behavior in our lives every day than we have ever seen. In part it is a result of the rapid advance in technology where every negative event, worldwide, is presented to us minute-by-minute. The use of technology to influence elections, mold public opinions, sow seeds of discontent, and damage our children is a new and disturbing development. Our writers have no intention of sitting back and allowing foreign influences and disaffected U. S. citizens continue to have a disproportionate influence on our nation. The silent majority has been too silent for too long! Our silence has become a sin of omission and not commission.
That frustration is one of the catalysts for this web site, and we are finding that our contributors have much to say before they leave the planet. Most are over sixty and all think long and hard about what they say before committing it to written word. They understand that impulsive responses to what you read on the internet can spark hasty, shallow, and often incendiary retorts. They also know that experience is a much better teacher than anything one can learn from school, a book, or an “expert” in a field.
Our writers have the experience that can only come from living and experiencing life’s ups and downs and are not proponents of academic theories. They have extensive, real world, experience in entrepreneurship, corporate management, law enforcement, politics, and military service and wars. They know that one cannot learn about business by reading a book and never working in the private sector. You can read about war but taking part in a war gives you a distinct perspective and a different appreciation for the challenges of our veterans and our nation. Living through severe economic downturns gives one an appreciation for economic stability that most under twenty can neither appreciate nor understand.
Enjoying the bounties of our nation for roughly one quarter of the nation’s existence is different than a teenager who has experienced it for only one fifteenth of that time. Passing along that knowledge is a priority but pushing back on destructive behavior in our society is a major goal.
What did we do in 2022?
- Foremost we formed a core group to get this effort underway
- We set up contacts far and wide with the knowledge to help us expand our reach
- Our contributors wrote 118 articles with wide ranging content on politics, religion, societal issues, our military, finance, and other topics
- A newsletter has been set up and roughly seven hundred readers are now being contacted monthly
- Expanded our thinking to include reviews of podcasts and books that have valuable content
What do we see ahead for 2023?
- Continue expansion of our readership
- Direct contact with new writers with a concentration in each subject area
- Periodic reformatting of content as we learn more about our evolving political and societal landscape
- Some community speeches to enlist the help of others and start building that viewership
America’s future can be bright, but it will only shine if individual citizens speak up and confront those who look to break us from within. Our writers have the knowledge that only comes with genuine experience, but unlike Edward Bear they know how to come down the stairs with fewer bumps on their head. Changing the world is like eating an elephant, you do it one citizen at a time!
2023 will be an interesting year on all fronts and we look forward to meeting it head on…
