Okay, it seems to me that some of you out there don't understand why I write this journal. Let me clear a few things up for you.

This journal is used for many things: I update my writing progress and announce new story publication. I talk about writing. I tell stories from my life.

But most of all, this is a place for me to vent. I unload here; I push the boundaries and call a spade a spade. In my day-to-day life, I'm really a fairly pleasant person. I don't instigate arguments. I don't involve myself in useless diatribes.

But I watch, and I pay attention. When the world does something stupid, I call it stupid here. I express my opinions in a strong manner and I don't pull my punches. You have to do that enough in real life.

I speak out against wrongs I see, and I do so in the strongest possible terms. There is no reason to be nice when idiots are running rampant over others rights and freedoms. There is no reason to be politic when abuses are running free.

If someone pops off with a comment about the ten thousand Jews killed by Hitler, I'll suck up the sudden turning in my stomach and take you to task. It was SIX FUCKING MILLION (and over ten million when you add they gypsies and other ethnic groups into the mix). To not know this is to rob those five million, nine hundred and ninety thousand souls of their humanity.

If someone calls me a whiner for speaking out against the religious right infringing upon the protection of all Americans to enjoy their choice of religious preference without having one particular view shoved down their fucking throat, I'll get in their face.

It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't mean I think any less of you or that I think your an idiot; only that you are being ignorant at the moment. Everyone does it. Myself included. If you don't like the way I state my opinion, by all means, there are many other venues of information available on the internet.

If you don't like the way I handle myself here but want to keep in contact with me, hell, my email link is here on this page. I'm much nicer away from here than I am here.

But I will not stand by and allow what I consider to be rampant ignorance and stupidity to run amok without calling foul.

Too many stay silent. I'm not one of them.

"When they came for the Catholics, I didn't speak up because I wasn't Catholic. When they came for the Gypsies, I didn't speak up because I'm not a Gypsy. When they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

"Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up."

Silence in the face of abuse is not an option.

Joseph Haines, signing off from The Edge of the Abyss.