I love this

I'm having fun. I love being able to blog about what I want, whether it's the curious horse or the cute trick-or-treaters, or political things in Gray. Stepping out of Gray, I still have an interest in issues that surface, particularly issues that I had covered myself a few months ago. Being human, you don't let the guillotine come down on the town, people, and issues you care about. The caring stays. Of course, the intensity will naturally fade as time marches on and as new issues arise that I have no personal involvement in. But I do care about the town in which I chose to live, work, and make my stand. I always will.

But what I really love is the ability to view all this from a free-agent perch. Having the latitude to study what's going on, form an opinion, and state that opinion. And in ways different from the strict confines of the editorial box. Hoo-boy! It's fun.

The best of all, though, is that I can study what's happening in Gray from a sociological-political perspective. The piece I'd posted on The Monument blog summarizing the recall from a sociological framework was a blast to write. I'm creating another one now, about militant rhetoric used in movements and how that kind of rhetoric differs from that used in 'moderate movements,' a la Dr. Herb Simons of Temple U. I harkens back to an incipient idea I'd had in college about how the rhetoric chosen for various movements shape that movement and eventually determines whether the movement survives or fails. It's the rhetoric, not the people, that is the key factor in a movement's success, I believe. Hence my post on the Council/KKK, and the other myriad things Gray and not-Gray related.

OK, so I'm a geek. But I'm a having- fun geek!