The Times... They Are A'Changin'...

Posted by Ken Penders from ny-amherst3a-147.buf.adelphia.net on October 22, 2001 at 17:51:30:
The events of the past few weeks since September 11 have had a profound affect on me, to the point where my priorities have dramatically shifted. My outlook is not what it once was, so much so, that I threw out over 50 pages of LOST ONES script for the graphic novel and have begun rewriting it from scratch, incorporating much more of my personal views than I was willing to before.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the media's willingness to shelve the voting study they themselves conducted and paid for concerning the issue of who really won Florida. Consequently, it is now coming out of the foreign media that all evidence points to an Al Gore victory, and not just by a small margin, but a margin so large it would basically declare the Bush government illegitimate.
I happen to believe it for the reasons given. If Bush won, the media would have said so and we'd be done with it. Progressive democrats like myself (or "liberals" if you must) would still be grumbling over the tactics, but we'd have no choice but to accept the results. If either Bush or Gore won by the same slenderest of margins, the media would still have said so, for the results would merely be status quo. I would still be questioning Bush's legitimacy, but there wouldn't be any support to do anything in changing the status quo. What the silence from the media is saying is quite deafening. Gore won, and won by more than enough. The figure being quoted is 20,000 votes. Since the most respected names of news providers were involved in the project, spending almost $2 million dollars to conduct it, for them to print articles saying in effect Bush stole the election could have serious repercussions for our society.
One of the attributes of my writing -- as Dan Drazen likes to point out -- deals with the secrets people keep from each other, whether it's in the form of government dealing with the individual, or on a more personal level, when family members keep secrets from each other. This aspect of human behavior is something that has always been with me in one form or another, having lived through the Kennedy Assassinations, Viet Nam, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, Iran Contra, and now this, the most depressing election I ever witnessed, when democracy was literally stolen from the American people.
To me, secrets are the hidden part of the story we never see or aren't meant to until much later when they can no longer affect the participants involved. To this day, there is still much we don't know about the assassination of JFK, and supposedly won't find out until 2017. I say supposedly because a little known clause in the law allows for the occupant of the White House at that time to make a judgement call whether or not those papers can be released. Already, valuable archives of the Reagan administration were legally supposed to be released, but Bush is doing his best to make sure they never see the light of day. Even in Texas, he is doing his best to suppress the release of state documents from the time he was Governor of that state. These documents belong to the people, not to him, and I applaud the Texas State legislature in going after them.
Before anyone accuses me of not being patriotic because I don't support Bush and his administration, I do believe in our government overall, I believe in the men and women of the armed forces (it's the Generals I have serious concerns about) and I also believe whoever planned and executed the WTC/Pentagon disaster should be dealt with in the most extreme measures. That said, I'm also not going to support measures that strip away our liberties and make our country any less than it should be.. When I see newspaper articles about the FBI discussing the use of torture, I feel like I'm in a Communist country. That's how surreal and disgusting it is.
So for me, THE LOST ONES has taken on a whole new purpose, a way to express my outrage at the injustices of the officials who carry out acts totally against the interests of the people they serve, as well as provide a road map for dealing with the strange new world we now find ourselves living in.
As far as my Sonic work is affected by this, I plan on resolving most if not all of the plot points by #118 (I only have six pages per issue) and then taking the echidna into a totally different direction. Even I need a break and this will be my form of relief. (This and the romance graphic novel I'm currently working on as well.)

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Comments: : The events of the past few weeks since September 11 have had a profound affect on me, to the point where my priorities have dramatically shifted. My outlook is not what it once was, so much so, that I threw out over 50 pages of LOST ONES script for the graphic novel and have begun rewriting it from scratch, incorporating much more of my personal views than I was willing to before. : The straw that broke the camel's back was the media's willingness to shelve the voting study they themselves conducted and paid for concerning the issue of who really won Florida. Consequently, it is now coming out of the foreign media that all evidence points to an Al Gore victory, and not just by a small margin, but a margin so large it would basically declare the Bush government illegitimate. : I happen to believe it for the reasons given. If Bush won, the media would have said so and we'd be done with it. Progressive democrats like myself (or "liberals" if you must) would still be grumbling over the tactics, but we'd have no choice but to accept the results. If either Bush or Gore won by the same slenderest of margins, the media would still have said so, for the results would merely be status quo. I would still be questioning Bush's legitimacy, but there wouldn't be any support to do anything in changing the status quo. What the silence from the media is saying is quite deafening. Gore won, and won by more than enough. The figure being quoted is 20,000 votes. Since the most respected names of news providers were involved in the project, spending almost $2 million dollars to conduct it, for them to print articles saying in effect Bush stole the election could have serious repercussions for our society. : One of the attributes of my writing -- as Dan Drazen likes to point out -- deals with the secrets people keep from each other, whether it's in the form of government dealing with the individual, or on a more personal level, when family members keep secrets from each other. This aspect of human behavior is something that has always been with me in one form or another, having lived through the Kennedy Assassinations, Viet Nam, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, Iran Contra, and now this, the most depressing election I ever witnessed, when democracy was literally stolen from the American people. : To me, secrets are the hidden part of the story we never see or aren't meant to until much later when they can no longer affect the participants involved. To this day, there is still much we don't know about the assassination of JFK, and supposedly won't find out until 2017. I say supposedly because a little known clause in the law allows for the occupant of the White House at that time to make a judgement call whether or not those papers can be released. Already, valuable archives of the Reagan administration were legally supposed to be released, but Bush is doing his best to make sure they never see the light of day. Even in Texas, he is doing his best to suppress the release of state documents from the time he was Governor of that state. These documents belong to the people, not to him, and I applaud the Texas State legislature in going after them. : Before anyone accuses me of not being patriotic because I don't support Bush and his administration, I do believe in our government overall, I believe in the men and women of the armed forces (it's the Generals I have serious concerns about) and I also believe whoever planned and executed the WTC/Pentagon disaster should be dealt with in the most extreme measures. That said, I'm also not going to support measures that strip away our liberties and make our country any less than it should be.. When I see newspaper articles about the FBI discussing the use of torture, I feel like I'm in a Communist country. That's how surreal and disgusting it is. : So for me, THE LOST ONES has taken on a whole new purpose, a way to express my outrage at the injustices of the officials who carry out acts totally against the interests of the people they serve, as well as provide a road map for dealing with the strange new world we now find ourselves living in. : As far as my Sonic work is affected by this, I plan on resolving most if not all of the plot points by #118 (I only have six pages per issue) and then taking the echidna into a totally different direction. Even I need a break and this will be my form of relief. (This and the romance graphic novel I'm currently working on as well.)

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Comments:	: The events of the past few weeks since September 11 have had a profound affect on me, to the point where my priorities have dramatically shifted. My outlook is not what it once was, so much so, that I threw out over 50 pages of LOST ONES script for the graphic novel and have begun rewriting it from scratch, incorporating much more of my personal views than I was willing to before. : The straw that broke the camel's back was the media's willingness to shelve the voting study they themselves conducted and paid for concerning the issue of who really won Florida. Consequently, it is now coming out of the foreign media that all evidence points to an Al Gore victory, and not just by a small margin, but a margin so large it would basically declare the Bush government illegitimate. : I happen to believe it for the reasons given. If Bush won, the media would have said so and we'd be done with it. Progressive democrats like myself (or "liberals" if you must) would still be grumbling over the tactics, but we'd have no choice but to accept the results. If either Bush or Gore won by the same slenderest of margins, the media would still have said so, for the results would merely be status quo. I would still be questioning Bush's legitimacy, but there wouldn't be any support to do anything in changing the status quo. What the silence from the media is saying is quite deafening. Gore won, and won by more than enough. The figure being quoted is 20,000 votes. Since the most respected names of news providers were involved in the project, spending almost $2 million dollars to conduct it, for them to print articles saying in effect Bush stole the election could have serious repercussions for our society. : One of the attributes of my writing -- as Dan Drazen likes to point out -- deals with the secrets people keep from each other, whether it's in the form of government dealing with the individual, or on a more personal level, when family members keep secrets from each other. This aspect of human behavior is something that has always been with me in one form or another, having lived through the Kennedy Assassinations, Viet Nam, Watergate, Nixon's resignation, Iran Contra, and now this, the most depressing election I ever witnessed, when democracy was literally stolen from the American people. : To me, secrets are the hidden part of the story we never see or aren't meant to until much later when they can no longer affect the participants involved. To this day, there is still much we don't know about the assassination of JFK, and supposedly won't find out until 2017. I say supposedly because a little known clause in the law allows for the occupant of the White House at that time to make a judgement call whether or not those papers can be released. Already, valuable archives of the Reagan administration were legally supposed to be released, but Bush is doing his best to make sure they never see the light of day. Even in Texas, he is doing his best to suppress the release of state documents from the time he was Governor of that state. These documents belong to the people, not to him, and I applaud the Texas State legislature in going after them. : Before anyone accuses me of not being patriotic because I don't support Bush and his administration, I do believe in our government overall, I believe in the men and women of the armed forces (it's the Generals I have serious concerns about) and I also believe whoever planned and executed the WTC/Pentagon disaster should be dealt with in the most extreme measures. That said, I'm also not going to support measures that strip away our liberties and make our country any less than it should be.. When I see newspaper articles about the FBI discussing the use of torture, I feel like I'm in a Communist country. That's how surreal and disgusting it is. : So for me, THE LOST ONES has taken on a whole new purpose, a way to express my outrage at the injustices of the officials who carry out acts totally against the interests of the people they serve, as well as provide a road map for dealing with the strange new world we now find ourselves living in. : As far as my Sonic work is affected by this, I plan on resolving most if not all of the plot points by #118 (I only have six pages per issue) and then taking the echidna into a totally different direction. Even I need a break and this will be my form of relief. (This and the romance graphic novel I'm currently working on as well.)
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