READING, WRITING AND LIFE

     Reading is one of life's greatest privileges, treats and source of food for thought. Without reading, and of course its partner in life writing, we would not be at the place we are. Earth's history, the history of mankind would be so different, such an alternative history, that we would not recognize ourselves.
     The first message of discontent scratched out on a cave wall, or written on a piece of papyrus, the first paper productions that spoke of new thoughts, new ideas, challenging ideas and changing the status quo, the pictograms and ideograms that morphed into written alphabets - think of the miracle of it all.
     How would we ever have transferred our thoughts to others? How would we ever had the glory of the Bible, of the Talmud, of the thoughts of Socrates, of Thomas Paine, of Albert Camus, of all the writers and thinkers of the world throughout history, how, unless we had the luxury and right to think, to write and to read.
     In all the famous novels writing of changed societies there is a vicious antipathy to books and writings of all sorts. In Brave New World, in 1984, in  Farenheit 451, in the real worlds of Communism and Fascism, there are always book burnings, attempts to censor literature that offends one's own thoughts. Have people not sought to censor books here  in our own country, books such as Huckleberry Finn, Anne Frank, Are You There, G-d, It's Me Margaret and on and on.
     I think of two books I recently finished, One Second Later and One Year Later, books written along the lines of On The Beach and Alas, Babylon, books that warn of the very possible real future that awaits us if we don't wake up, shake ourselves and do something. These are frightening books, alarmist books, yes, but books of an alternative history that could very well be if we do not watch ourselves more carefully, think things through before acting. I highly recommend them. Great literature? No, but thought provoking writing and reading? Definitely so.
     So then the question is raised about individual rights and the rights of society. May I say I hate someone? Might I be permitted to say I wish them dead and would someone please fulfill that wish? Am I to be allowed to use words of incitement to violence? Does one have the right to root for anarchy against all forms of organized government and society? Now that thought truly is frightening for without the rules of society, a fair society, we will all be living in caves - or worse! Yet the right to publish is there.
     So why do I write this? Well, we have a society now in the world that is caught between extremes. There are those that use the power of words to incite riot, to rile up one group against another, or use their words to silence the words of others. We have spam attacks, book burnings still!!, and even here in the Village, we have attempts to censor our reading and writing.
     When one controls what is published or allowed to be published, when one controls that which might be disseminated throughout society, one is practicing something that is anathema to the growth and maintenance of a healthy society. And such is the condition of life here in CV. Our so called newspaper is now nothing more than a platform for a certain segment of CV, it has turned into a pennysaver type publication in its frantic search for ads, and it refuses to tolerate any competition, good or bad. This, my friends, is censorship. It matters not whether the words banned are on a sheet of paper hung on a wall, or read from notes at a gathering, or transcribed into a competing newspaper or similar outlet or even the spoken word that is not even allowed to be brought forth lest it become written and spreads to other and larger audiences. That is one of the basic founding pillars of dictatorship and it is alive and well here in the Village even as people fight against it, protecting your right to be informed.
     It amazes me when I find that people do not know that we pay for all the changes at the Clubhouse and it is not ours, that WPRF owns and does what it wants with it with only a paper approval from us and sometimes not even that. It amazes me when people know so little about the issues which face us here in the Village but really, it should not, for how are people to find out the truth unless there are words, writing and reading, good, bad or indifferent, pro one's thoughts or not. The right to read and write makes us free and a major difference between freedom and slavery.
      So now during the onset of the new election season and campaigning, try to find what you can read. Try to find what you can hear. Try to find the presence of thoughts, of dreams, of corrective ideas. Find meetings to attend, even as they are attempted to be shut down. Listen, read, write and seek out the truth. Think for yourselves and do not go meekly along with the status quo. It is not good for you or me.
Change and a new day.
Change and honesty and transparency.
Change and a better village for all of us.
Change and a UCO which actually reaches out and touches someone - US - and does not look to avoid issues other than those that will strengthen their hold.
Change and new thinking for the future.
Change and a better grip on WPRF.
Change and immediate working on post    Millennium times.
Change for the positive.
      Read all about it. Think all about it.