To Blog or Not to Blog

Have you ever felt you had something to say and no one would listen? Or, maybe someone would listen, but there was no way to get your voice heard? Did you ever feel that you had a pertinent contribution, but no platform to speak from? Have you ever felt that the mainstream media wasn't reporting the truth, the whole truth , and nothing but the truth? Well, that is what blogging is for.

First and foremost, let's recognize the fact that blogging is born of the old adage that the necessity is the mother of all invention. Blogging would not have arisen if not for the need for a platform from which the people could be heard. A safe place where the people can speak what is on their mind in a forum that is free of intimidation and socioeconomic elitism. What elitism? The one that pervades our culture and silently implies that unless you were born from wealthy stock and were afforded the opportunity to attend a college whose name matters more than your actual grades, then no...no one wants to hear from you. Oh, you can have your fifteen minutes if you are willing to parade your tragedy to the masses so that media conglomerates can inflate their ratings. Yet, I digress...the point is that blogging is for everyone and needed the most by the people, by the average person.

So, for the first time the other day, I was introduced to, and astounded by, the concept of "the gatekeepers of our society." The concept is that we the people should entrust that journalists, artists, politicians, musicians, etc. are going to translate the "truth" of current events. The concept exudes that the average person blogging about politics and currents events is actually "polluting" the news with uninformed and uneducated spew. This concept is relayed with just a touch, well a heaping really, of attitude. The privileged kind. The kind that comes with elitism.

I want to know, as uneducated or polluted or diluted and crass as it might be, the truth as the common man knows it. Sure some hillbilly redneck might "spew" some racial epithets that make me cringe. He isn't the first and won't be the last, so let's get over it. Fact is, as ugly as the blog might be...it is still someones truth, even if it is not our own. You don't educate the masses and inform them by spoon feeding only what the "gatekeepers" feel is acceptable or palatable. In a democracy, such as ours is supposed to be, you give the masses the unfiltered truth and allow them to consume it and absorb it and react to it. To have "gatekeepers" implies that we the people are not intelligent enough to analyze current events responsibly.

YOU know what I think, though? I think the "gatekeepers" are scared. I think they are afraid of the way the people will react? Afraid of what the people will deduce. Afraid the of who the people will look at and who the people will want to hold accountable. Afraid that the people will wake up and become aware that they are consistently lied to through today's media.

Secondly, lets not forget that it is the comman man's sons and daughters that enlist in the military and die for this country. So, before you, the people, the common man, willingly steps down and allows an elitist to be your gatekeeper, ask yourself if the gatekeepers are sending their children to die in useless wars, spun by the media for your entertainment and silent consent.

Third, and last, we, as Americans, are guaranteed our right to free speech under that thing we call Constitution. In today's political climate, you may only speak freely in free speech zones and beware what anti-government rhetoric you spew, because you will be accused of being a homegrown terrorist. Don't hand over one of the few last forums you have for free speech. Even if the speech is ugly it is still your right, gatekeepers be damned. So, blog on.