|
|
|
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News
May 9, 2006
We need to fight the bastards who’ve stolen America’s government, so Unknown News will always be here, but to be able to fight, we must first be able to eat and pay the rent.
We’re going to talk about our poverty for a few paragraphs today, but there
won’t be any plea for donations. We’re really weary of only breaking the
beans-rice-and-ramen routine when some kind stranger sends a ten dollar
donation for the website. Donations are nice and always appreciated, but the
|
|
We’ll still be doing whatever we can to fight the gathering storm as it engulfs our nation, our world.
The fight for freedom is too important to walk away.
But it can’t be our lives’ work.
Our lives have to be our lives’ work.
|
|
|
|
only way we’re going to avoid homelessness is by taking some of the time we’ve dedicated to the website, and spending that time on someone else’s clock, working for a wage.
My wife and I declared bankruptcy last year, squeezing just under the deadline when the new Charles Dickens Anti-Bankruptcy laws took effect. But even with much of our debt swept away, we’re still barely surviving from paycheck to paycheck. We are working stiffs, both of us, at low-paid jobs where we’re earning less than we earned last year, which was less than the year before.
Both our jobs could easily be outsourced to India or Pakistan, where the wage would be a fraction of what we’re earning. And because our jobs could be outsourced, they probably will be. We could both be out of work at any moment, and everything we own, our computer, our clothes, everything, is only worth perhaps a few thousand dollars. We have almost empty shelves with nothing in reserve for rainy days, and nobody needs a weather forecast to know torrential downpours are coming.
The US will probably be in yet another war soon, with thousands dying for no good reason. The economy will continue to be rosy for economists, but lousy for the vast majority who, like us, have liabilities but no assets to speak of. It haunts us, but we see nothing but gray skies ahead.
Perhaps we’re wildly delusional and all is already lost, America is over -- but we like to believe there’s still a chance. We tell ourselves that our work on this website accomplishes some good in the ongoing battle against Bush, Cheney, and the other monsters.
But realistically, we have to slow it down. We, meaning I -- Harry -- simply must work less on the website and more on survival.
Stepping out of the "we" posture, I have always been sort of an irresponsible dreamer. But I'm not a boy any more, haven't been for many, many years, and it's time to be an adult. It's time to remind myself that the website activism is for our spare time. My primary responsibility has to be, as
|
|
|
President Bush so wisely said, putting food on our family.
So I'm sitting here, trying to evaluate what we do on the website that really does help, and what we can cut back on. These changes would probably only be noticed by a handful of longtime readers, but we owe those good folks an explanation.
The most obvious change is that we’ll publish just one major update weekly, instead of two. That'll save a lot of time, and on the bright side, it means whatever news and articles are worthwhile won't vanish quite so quickly.
We’ve long said we wouldn’t edit incoming emails on the dialogue page, but I was an editor once (it’s the work I know best, but of course, can’t find any more) and I still tend to fix typos and repair cluttered syntax by habit. That’s fifteen minutes every day, though, so no more. Beginning today, our un-edited dialogue will actually be un-edited.
We can also save a lot of time by not answering misguided e-mailers with a polite, point-by-point refutation of their arguments. We enjoy debating whatever topics come up -- libertarianism, or immigration policy, or the war in Iraq, or even arguing nutballery with nutballs -- but we enjoy it too much. It's too much time to spend for an audience of one reader.
We’re certainly not willing to publish wrongheaded dialogue without fighting back, so on the dialogue page, we’ll be publishing less of the utterly wrongheaded dialogue. And it’s sad to say this, but we fritter away too much time in off-topic chat with our on-line friends and contributors, so we’ll have to blitz through the in-box quicker.
The articles will be accompanied by fewer illustrations. It takes time, sometimes too much time, to find appropriate illustrations, and it also takes lots more expensive bandwidth to publish pictures than to publish words.
We’ll probably raise the bar on the original commentary we’re willing to publish, because the editing, coding, and proofing takes an inordinate amount of time. But I reckon we won’t raise our standards too much, not if we’re still willing to publish garbage like the column you’re almost through reading.
There may be other cut-backs coming, but we’ll still be doing whatever we can to fight the gathering storm as it engulfs our nation, our world. The fight for freedom is too important to walk away.
But it can’t be our lives’ work. Our lives have to be our lives’ work.
© by the author.
| | We're usually unable to forward readers'
emails, but both readers and authors are
invited to visit our 'dialogue' page
for two-way communication: |
| |
This is an archived Unknown News page. For newest material, visit our main page.
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
I can't afford therapy, but boy do I need it. So as an affordable alternative, I pound my anger into a weekly column here.
Fair warning: My parents were repressed -- using any bad words would get my mouth washed out with soap, literally. I still remember the sickly flavor of DoveTM. So as an adult, vulgarity helps with the healing. If naughty language offends you, beat the rush and get offended now.
This page is for my own good, not yours, so you may not like it, but I don't care.
About the authors
|
Helen and Harry Highwater have published Unknown News since 1997. We're a married couple sharing a byline à la Lennon and McCartney, and "I" can be either of us, or both of us. If you're consumed by curiosity, it's safe to assume the more boisterous and aggressive bits come from Helen, and anything ladylike or demure is probably Harry's work.
|
|
|
|
|
Previous articles by Helen & Harry Highwater:
Asleep all over America
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Comparing Bush and Hitler, and the monsters behind the curtain
by Helen & Harry Highwater
CNN is committing treason
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Is the President an adult?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
We interrupt the bad news for a brief pep talk
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Stand up for something, damn it
by Helen & Harry Highwater
What kind of 'patriot' supports a tyrant?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Time to oppose the phony opposition
by Helen & Harry Highwater
President Charles Manson
by Helen & Harry Highwater
What's for dinner at the Hanoi Hilton?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
The bully at the bully pulpit
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Truth or dare, America
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Bush administration spying targets reporters, activists
by Helen & Harry Highwater
No, Virginia,
we're not libertarians
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Letter to the editor
by Proud American, with a response from Helen & Harry Highwater
A whisper of optimism
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Muhammad Ali is a scumbag
by Helen & Harry Highwater
On behalf of God Himself, I endorse Alito for Supreme Court
by Helen & Harry Highwater, as Jerry Falwell
The old guy in a sweatshirt
by Helen & Harry Highwater
The emperor wears no mental clothes
by Helen & Harry Highwater
I'm filing bankruptcy
by Helen Highwater
Our long national nightmare is just beginning
by Helen & Harry Highwater
"Mission accomplished" for FEMA
by Harry Highwater
Police roadblock freedom in America
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Our phone number
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Fuck you, George W. Bush
by Helen & Harry Highwater
A forgotten man, one of many
by Helen & Harry Highwater
The daily compromise
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Are you for freedom, or against it?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
The unspoken subtext of Karl Rove's treason:
Support your local CIA
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Cabbages don't count
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Back to basics: Question authority
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Anatomy of another lie
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Constipated and liquefied logic
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Be careful crossing the street, ya damn kids!
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Monsters in America,
from Deep Throat to James Watt to Christopher Cox
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Mainstream media:
Completely on board with Bush administration lies
by Helen & Harry Highwater
A Pope to be ashamed of
by Helen & Harry Highwater
What can we do about the stolen election?
by Atomicktom and
Helen & Harry Highwater
The President who cried "wolf!"
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Defeating terrorists without wars
by Helen & Harry Highwater
If you're not for Bush, you're French ... or al Qaeda
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Rescuing America from tyranny
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Separation of church and state
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Who would Jesus vote for?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Godless hippie scumbag
traitors who hate the troops
by Helen & Harry Highwater
To tell the truth
by Helen & Harry Highwater
What kind of bloody savages
would kill people and drag
their corpses along the road?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Our serial killer nation
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Judging Judging Amy
by Helen & Harry Highwater
An apology and an endorsement
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Rights, responsibilities, and acknowledgement
by Peace-Thru-Reason and
Helen & Harry Highwater
Los Angeles Times memo orders reporters to fudge the truth
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Our perspective on Terri Schiavo
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Who deserves freedom of speech? And who doesn't?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Two years of lies about Sept. 11
The new Warren Commission
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Criticizing Israel
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Is it terrorism to be a patriot?
Or is it just like Red Dawn, only with turbans?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Bush knocks on Armageddon's back door
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Why I won't be at the victory parade
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Company fined $6,000 for
answering customer's questions
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Clint Eastwood, and US foreign policy
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Do you love America? Do you?
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Google refuses our ad
by Helen & Harry Highwater
Reasonable deaths in a nonsense war
by Helen & Harry Highwater
|
|
|
We appreciate the heck out of everyone who helps.
|
|
|
| |
