Why Blog?
Why blog?? To keep in touch with our friends out there, some might say.? But it could also be to while away lonely hours in front of their computer, they might admit.? Yet, there?s another class of bloggers: old-timers who feel the compulsion to share life?s lessons with others.? That?s where I fit in.? Years ago in Pacific Island Monthly there was a regular column by a retired minister who had served many years in Papua-New Guinea.? If anything had gone wrong there recently?and usually there was plenty?he took the liberty to point it out and suggest what could be done to correct it.? Joe Murphy, the former editor of what was once Guam?s only newspaper, might do the same thing in his own tongue-in-cheek fashion.? Both could be called bloggers before the invention of the term. I used to wonder how these people, both as white as I am, could get away with it.? Why didn?t they let local people solve their own problems?
The years pass, and here I am now as old as they were then and in pretty much the same situation.? Neither of them suffered from the delusion that they would fix all that was broken and so usher in a new age of justice and truth.? I don?t either.? But for just about my whole life?I’ve?tried to maintain a conversation about island affairs with all who might listen.? Why quit now?? My hope is that the conversation can be continued honestly and respectfully.? But if we slip now and then, our years and our good intentions should bring us the benefit of the doubt.
I don?t know about others, but that?s why I blog.