A Beginning ...

Once upon a time, I started a magazine called Tripwire. It lasted one issue, cost $12000 of my own and borrowed funds, and was a collossal failure -- but only if you judge such matters in terms of readership or revenue. Well, it looked damn good and did have some interesting articles, so I'll give it a few marks for quality, but the rest was something of a disaster. As I stared at the empty space where my url should be, the name Tripwire came to mind. A second chance for my failed attempt at publishing. If only it was so easy the first time around.

Why Tripwire? Cause and effect. Reaction. A trigger mechanism of sorts, this sharing of thoughts: I toss words outward and hopefully someone out there will catch a few and throw them back. That's the idea of this blogging business I suppose. Let's see if it works.

The title suspended up there sounds lofty and serious in a way I don't intend to be: Ideas Political, Social, and Reactionary. Whew. At the same time, we are all good little ostriches sticking our heads in the sand while the hunter targets our ever-widening bottoms: the nearing end of affordable oil, western opulence as developing nations struggle with poverty and disease, and the ecological abuse we heap upon the natural world. We should be terrified and shamed into making real change. Instead, we watch the newest "reality" show with glassy tired eyes, tranquilized and overwhelmed into inaction.

Yes, I know that's simplistic. But that, after all, is why I'm sitting here typing this instead of staring at my XBox: the hope for dialogue, awareness, and perhaps even a little desire for real change in the world. Naive and idealistic? Perhaps. But you've got to start somewhere.

For me, I guess that somewhere is here.