Feeling stressed out by the current political environment?
Anxious about where our country's heading?
Determined to "do something" to make a change?
Fascinated and/or intrigued by the conversations on DailyKos?
Enthusiastic and/or overwhelmed by the amount of information out there?
Afraid of looking less than knowledgeable about current affairs?
Once upon a time, (circa October 2004), I could have answered yes to all of the above, except for possibly the last one, because I have never been afraid of looking stupid, sometimes I have even done it on purpose. Kidding aside, I have been thinking lately about some of the "new kids on the block" at Daily Kos and how it would be nice to have a forum, perhaps weekly, for airing out questions, concerns or whatnot (which is my specialty). Of course, "veterans" are more than welcome, in fact encouraged to participate. Think of this as a trial balloon for a "meet and greet", here's your camp T-shirt, and your ticket to the pep rally!
A bit about me, so you can relate or just laugh. I have had a long standing interest in politics, but only became "involved" to a degree shortly before the last thing that is being called an election.
I read in Time magazine a blurb about this new-fangled thing they were calling "A Blog"...which at first conjured an image of some medevial monster. Of course, they were referring to where you and I are now, the web log, or blog. Daily Kos was also mentioned, I believe, with hints that it might tilt to the left just a smidge. I had my first hints at that time that the RWCM (right wing conservative media) might not be giving me the "whole story" to what was happening, so I bravely called up Daily Kos on my computer...an violas! I started reading. Shortly thereafter I joined up, and the rest of my free time is history...LOL....
One of the best things about Daily Kos is you don't have to be an expert, (I am certainly not one) and you don't have to have total recall of all current issues. It's easy to get overwhelmed, just remember to take your time, pick a topic, and don't try to absorb everything all at once. Avoid sensory overload. Make friends with some of the veterans on here, and also make friends with the resource tools available, such as the Kossary (great for learning what some of these acronyms mean!). My experience has been really good when I have asked what something means, or how to do it...and let me tell you, I am sometimes computer challenged. If some of the Cheers and Jeers crowd can teach me to post a link...trust me when I say this, you will be Just Fine!
I am not sure yet what form this "forum" will take, but after bouncing it off some of the aforementioned crowd, I believe this will get the ball rolling. Hopefully once a week (if I am doing this, it may move to a weekend thing) we will post the forum, ask some questions, share some new things, or just get to know each other better. I am confident some of the veterans will drop in to offer up their wisdom, they're pretty cool that way.
Remember, we are all teachers and we are all students! What do you have to teach and/or learn today?