Blogging has been new experience for me and after three years I wonder why I did not start sooner. After retirement I started to watch more of the cable channels and the items discussed caused me to start writing letters to the editor. One letter that I wrote contradicted an article by a retired political science professor and the paper refused to print it because they decided that the prof knew more about the subject than I did. They also disagreed with my position which was that this country's founders would not have been happy about Obamacare and would be turning over in their graves. At that point I stopped writing. A friend that I had worked with called and asked if I would be interested in attending a night class on blogging with him. I said yes and we both finished the class. I was introduced to many free web sites that allowed anyone to start using them to write a blog and I tried a couple of them but they were clutsy and not easy to use. My friend Mark put me in touch with another IT guy that he had worked with and I hired him to create my blog web site. I asked if he wanted me to use his name and he said yes. Tim Crowe from Morgantown, WV, built the web site that I am using and maintains it. That was three years ago and I started to write blogs after my eightith birthday. I'm eighty three now and still have a lot to say but by putting it into a blog you don't have to listen unless you want to.
The reason that I am writing this piece is to answer many of the comments that I have received. You have asked if I developed the site and the answer is no and it is not one of the free sites that I tried. Tim developed the site and maintains it and it was his layout with the news for lefties on the left and news for the righties on the right. If you have never visited the site on a computer you have not seen the news items since it only shows the blogs on your cell phone. I have found that many of the comments are spam and did not realize that would happen but I guess unwanted intrusions into our cyber worlds are part of the system and we have to keep trying ways to get rid of them. To those that have asked for help in starting their own blog I would recommend that you find a professional to create your site and use their help to manage it unless you are nerdy enough to do it your self. As I said the free sites came with baggage and you can't control what you don't own. Most of the comments I receive are positive and there have been no comments that have argued with the subject they refer to. I guess that the only blog readers are the ones that agree with me. My opinions are not always the popular ones and I would expect to hear some push back but so far I haven't. I am receiving too many comments to be able to answer your questions but keep asking and from time to time I will write a blog to answer them.
I am a Christian conservative and you will see that position creep into my writing but I do try to see both sides and present them fairly. I will not back down from my beliefs to placate someone or any organization but will always try to not berate anyone or demean a position just to make points. I will continue to write about the things that pop into my head from the news, local affairs and happenings that I encounter. So expect everything from blue jeans to Vatican politics. I hope that those of you that are following "letters by john" will tell me when you wish for something that I have missed or correct me if I stray too far. Don't tell me about my spelling mistakes since they are the computer's fault.
After the three years that I have been doing this I decided to save the work from those years for my children, relatives and friends. A local publisher that published two books for me is compiling them and after editing will send them in a book form to Amazon for publishing. Amazon will have them for sale to the public and when they are available I will mention it on the next blog. Thank you for following and reading the blogs that I write and I look forward to your future comments.
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