[Previous entry: "Shields Up!"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Email safety"]

11/26/2003 Archived Entry: "A Thanksgiving thought"

Cartoons of the Day: Mike Thompson's Buckingham Palace Guards Never Flinch; Tony Auth Recruiting Office"; Jeff Danziger's disturbing Your Tax Dollars at Work; and Ted Ral's subtle At HomeWith Joe Terrorist.And...this for those of you reading McBlog from work where you must be very bored to linger here ;-), here is a site that sends you on whimsical journeys of self discovery. For example, discover What Breed Of Dog Are You?, What's Your True Color?, What Color Is Your Aura?, What is Your Driver's Alter Ego?...and much more.

My hat is off once more to political activist extraordinaire Mary Lou Seymour. Okay, okay...*if* I wore a hat, I'd take it off! She is the antidote to my pessimism about the current political drift, especially in the United States. (BTW, I am not a generally pessimistic person, perhaps because my personal life is so very happy.) Mary Lou finds reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving Day by looking at the wondeful community of friends and fellow-travellers that is made possible by the Internet. And the lady is right. So many people -- including readers of McBlog -- enrich my life in a manner that would have been unimaginable to me six years ago. This is particularly important to me as I live in rural Ontario on a 40-acre farm with my husband, two dogs and five cats; in winter, we are sometimes snowbound and isolated for days on end. And, yet, I never feel cut off from the world, the swirl of friendship and family, the roller coaster ride of politics...because of the Internet community (or communities) which have become my second home. This community is not merely a sustaining force on a personal level, it is also a dynamic political force for freedom. As society in the macrocosm -- the institutions and laws that rule us -- grow ever more discouraging, it is the microcosm -- the blogs, the discussion lists, the rebellious sparks -- that offer encouragement and hope. Thank you.

To pick up on my opening theme, let me condense Mary Lou's list of community for which she is thankful:
--the Liberty Round Table discussion list
--her friend and editor Tom Knapp of Rational Review, who gave ML a chance to write her column back in the old Free-Market.Net days (click here for those old columns)
--working with the Free State Project
--for Claire Wolfe, "whose blog I read every day for inspiration, laughs and joy"
--for my friend Wendy McElroy, who sometimes lets me be guest editor for IFeminists.com when she's out of town lecturing or traveling, and who also has a wonderful daily blog (BACK AT YOU, ML!)
--Katherine Albrecht, founder of CASPIAN, "whose updates about the anti-privacy machinations of WalMart and others who want to track the world with RFID chips was a revalation to me
--Elaine Cassel, whom I just met this year in cyberspace, whose "Civil Liberties Watch" blog tracks Herr Ashcroft's assaults on the Constitution
--Ken Holder, friend and comrade and editor of The Libertarian Enterprise through thick and thin
--John Deere at LibertyForum
--Christian Butterbach, "whose wonderful web sites such as the Exterritorial Imperative, email messages and help are invaluable"
--R.J. Tavel and all the gang at LIS-LEAF (Learning Electronically About Freedom mailing service) "who search the Net for articles every day"
--Carl Bussjaeger, whose Doing Freedom! and North Amercan Samizda sites remain an inspiration and whose great book, Net Assets, is available for download
--and, of course, many others...

Here is Mary Lou's Thanksgiving card to us all.

Best to all,
mac