It should be painfully clear to everyone that America is in crisis.

We are, as a country, as divided as we’ve ever been.  We self-isolate within our own labels, and we don’t talk to one another anymore.  Now, based on whatever we choose to self-identify as, we can even select our own “news” – which may or may not have any tenuous relationship to fact or reality – so we can completely insulate ourselves from any chance that some alternative perception might color our worldview outside of the lines we have restricted ourselves to.

This is how empires fall in the modern world.  Not from invasion, or terrorism or catastrophe… but from simple apathy.  Hobbe’s leviathan shredding itself in the hopes of removing parts of itself that it no longer likes.

While I don’t consider myself to suffer from megalomania, my wife and I are starting this site in the hopes that in our own small way we can help defend what is left of the center.  There needs to be a place where we can come together and discuss and defend our different worldviews without screaming; but more importantly without lying (either to ourselves or each other) in a desperate attempt to defend an indefensible stance.

I’m claiming the center, and I’ll sound my yawp here.  I hope to have this space to talk about politics, social issues, current affairs, religion, philosophy, economics, history, etc… in a safe place where the facts that are claimed are real facts, and the opinions are required to be logically defended, and when a person is shown to be wrong, they can find the strength to acknowledge their misunderstanding and yield gracefully (yes, this also includes me)… and when someone has proven their case they can be graceful and mature about moving the conversation forward rather than wasting goodwill on a spiteful victory dance or a litany of insults.

The first step to get out of a crisis is to admit that you’re in one.

Let’s take that step together, and see if we can still find the center… or discover together that it is irredeemably lost.

Welcome and well met.

Glenn Doty