COVER -> MY GLASS HOUSE
Thoughts of my problem come to mind this week as I have been involved in an on-going process during the last two months of severing ties which have proven non-productive, draining, or simply no longer in keeping with my goals. I have been doing this severing both here at The World's Magazine and also in my personal life. And there is simply no way you can choose to walk away from people and relationships without a degree of direct (or, more often, passive agressive) rancor and recrimination coming into the final dialogue.
Here's a sampling:
- "I've always wanted to tell you that it's unfair of you to push other people to live up to the same standards that you hold yourself to. It's completely unfair! Not everybody has to be driven..."
- "Maybe you should examine your pattern of 'tossing' people and things out of your life, if you haven't already with your therapist..."
- "I'm not asking you to thank me, but I don't think anyone on earth would have put up with you the way I have...."
- "Well, I'm sorry to hear that you've decided to go with one of our competitors, and I apologize for your inconvenience, but how sure are you that they can deliver everything they are promising you?..."
- "I'm not angry, but I do think you need to wake up and see that there is no dissidence if you don't alienate a lot of people first! Otherwise, you're not really a radical at all, you're just a joke!..."
I keep my game-face. I continue to be polite and non-accusatory. I endure the final scene and then go home to wrestle with my guilt.... As one of my former employers once accused: "You've got the 'Good Girl' syndrome. Where I would tell these jerks to fuck off, you let them rant. The Good Girl never takes the last cookie on the plate..."
GOOD FORTUNE
It hasn't all been arduous these weeks, though. Just last week I received an anonymous "Care Package" from Rasta-Electronics.com. I laughed and laughed!
It was a wonderful gesture which I finally sussed out originated from one of my friends in Middle America. One of the items was a copy of Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Uprising" CD. I hadn't heard this album in years and enjoyed being brought back to the words of The Prophet. It brightened my day and prompted a few telephone calls to old friends while I was in such a wonderful and joyous mood.
Thank you!
Also on the table has been an offer from another Internet publishing concern to give me first right of refusal on a couple of their Web sites. WHOA! Rod as Web Mogul? Stranger things have happened, I guess. I'll let you know if this is real or vaporware.
It was my privilege this past week to see a CSPAN2 broadcast of former-President Jimmy Carter's address at the "Globalization & The Human Condition" conference celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Aspen Institute. Carter's address was both graphic and moving as he described the growing chasm between the "haves" and "have-nots" of the world. For example, he pointed out that the majority of the people on earth have a per capita income of a single dollar a day, that while countries in the EU devote 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to relief of so-called Third World economies, the richest nation on Earth, the United States, devotes approximately one tenth of one per cent of GDP.
President Carter spoke so forth-rightly on the wrong of this situation, and the threat it produced to international peace and justice that it brought tears to my eyes. Until I heard this address of his, I NEVER, NEVER would have expected someone I believed to be part of "the Establishment" to feel as strongly about these issues and their dangers as we do. So I had to face that I have been wrong.
Some people out there, like former-President Carter, are still willing to find the good, idealistic fight, and even criticize their supposed peers, in the interests of us all. God bless him!
And it always warms the cockles of this old man's heart when one of our former friends and G21 Alumni decides to come back "home." In this Labor Day edition, G21 Alumnus HARRISON J. CHASTANG, III, who wrote for us back when we were the in-house e-zine of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and then followed us into our first year of Web publication, sent us a Special Report from his time at the Republican National Convention which I believe you'll find informative. Enjoy! And welcome back, Old Timer!
I can remember many a fine evening talking with Harrison about sports and San Francisco politics and being Black journalists. I was sorry to see him leave G21 those many years ago as he was the other person here who enthused about the glories of Carnaval/Mardi Gras/Carnival in various places around the globe. I shared with him my dream of attending at least one Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro before I die. He had already been.
THINGS THAT BOTHER ME THIS WEEK
1. The Lazy People - "But they've got 8 guys working on a project like this!" To which I think: "Most of my competitors have mammoth paid staffs with multiple titles, but ONE GUY manages to get as much work done every week as all those folks, you lazy bastard!!!"2. Cash Flow.
3. Getting the Macromedia Flash feature launched this week.
4. Too many people asking me where I plan to live next --- and WHEN.
Thanks for coming back this week.
"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod
ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services.
Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He is also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviews technology issues weekly. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000.
He lives in Baltimore, MD, at the moment (though it seems to most people he *actually* lives on the Web,) edits the writing of people from four continents for The World's Magazine, and wonders who The Last Woman will be in his "spare time."
Our Editor does listen!