Hello everyone,
Thank you for joining me for my first blog post in what will hopefully be my first successful blog. I thought the best way to start out would be to explain what led me to create this blog and where I'm planning to take it.
The immediate cause had something to do with an incident involving me and my college's newspaper. I am a regular contributor, usually because I want to provide a thoughtful opinion on an issue without being too far to one side or the other. I wouldn't call myself a centrist, but I like to consider both sides of the issue before casting judgement, and as a result I usually have an opinion somewhere in the middle.
Anyway, the issue at hand was a debate between my school's atheists and more religious students that was taking place in form of questions and statements chalked on sidewalks across campus, essentially over whether or not to believe in any kind of supreme being. The newspaper went looking for perspectives on the issue on its Facebook page, and in typical James fashion I decided to offer my two cents (for those wondering what I said, I'll try to post an expanded version of the remarks soon). As it happened, I was the only one who felt like doing so, apparently.
A few days later, I went on the paper's website (since they tend to post articles there before they go out in print, and the delivery schedule to my dorm has been a little erratic this year), and saw that the editors had posted an "online exclusive" with a reaction to the religion debate. I was happy that the newspaper was taking a further interest in the issue, and I clicked on the link, eager to see what other people were saying.
It turned out that the newspaper had decided to take my comment from Facebook and just copy/paste it onto their website in its entirety. I don't mind the chance to share my views and there was nothing in the comment that I wouldn't want anyone to see, but the problem I had with it was that they had neither asked nor informed me that my comment would be used in this manner. I wouldn't call it an invasion of my rights or some abuse of power, but something still felt wrong about what had happened. After some thinking, it occurred to me that rather than getting angry, I had just as much right to create a space for my thoughts rather than rely on the school newspaper as my sole forum.
Aside from the immediate cause, I've been considering something like a blog for a while - essentially a place where I can talk about my opinions on local, national, and international issues (or just anything going on with me or around me), and anyone who feels like reading can. I'm not bound by any regulations that I would have as a sometime opinion columnist, either. As the 2012 presidential election comes nearer and nearer, I see a lot of political opinions and arguments on Facebook, and I want this blog to be an alternative to that as well. I don't necessarily like being forced to see every political argument any of my Facebook friends post, but it wouldn't be right to assume that everyone should be required to see what I say either. So, I'm going to do my best to keep the political commentary here, not there, so anyone who wants to see it, and those who can't aren't required to read it.
For the big picture, I'm about to turn twenty-one, and rather than anticipating my days of being able to drink, I'm thinking more about my place in the world: what I've done with my life so far, what I'm currently doing, and what I want to do. This blog may not be much, but it allows me to make something of a mark and feel like I've got some form of self-expression as I try to work out what my true passions are and where I want to go from here.
I decided to call the blog "James and Words" after trying a good half-dozen other blog titles, most of which either sounded unintelligent or pretentious. Admittedly, "James and Words" wasn't the witty title I was initially trying for, but after thinking about it, I like it because it's simple and tells you exactly what this blog is: it's me and some words. Well, a lot of words, judging by the length of this post. Thanks for reading, and look for my next post in the next few days!
TL;DR: Starting a blog, mostly to talk about local, national, and international issues as they come up.
Edit: Added the TL;DR section for people who want the really short summary.
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