Dipping a Toe (Again)

I've kept this blog off and on (mostly on) for a number of years. It never reached a huge audience, and that's okay. I began it as an outlet because I was encountering a number of big events and required a means of expression. The big events continued (as they do), but I pretty much stopped blogging after the death of my late husband.

Now, you might be thinking, "if maintaining M, P, & G, S, had been a real outlet, then she would have not only kept at it, but maniacally so." To which I say, "nah." But then, I expect that any widow or widower would say this: you lose interest in nearly everything after losing your spouse. I didn't fall into a depression so much as I just--felt neutered. I am still trying to emerge from that state. It comes and it goes, but I can say that colors are reappearing and interests are being re-piqued. And that's all one can ask for.

The point is that I'm going to attempt to reintroduce myself to blogging now that I'm feeling like I can "speak" again. So there it is. Onward and upward. 

Freedom of Speech, 2012-Style

Over at Foreign Policy, Lee C. Bollinger offers a review of concerns about freedom of speech in 2012; he finds governments and corporations" that have struggled to silence individuals pitted against "ordinary citizens and activists" who insist on speaking their minds. Although there have been numerous crackdowns by said "governments and corporations," people, aided in no small way by technological advances (e.g., smartphones), decline to just hush up, which bodes well, in the long run, for freedom of expression.