Responsibility

In a conversation recently, a new friend told me that they just wanted to create; they no longer want to deal with the vagaries of getting the content they create out into the world. They came to me to help with the vagaries.

I completely agree. I just want to create. Perhaps my definition of create is different yet tangentially related since we both host blogs and at least one of us keeps it up to date (that "one" is not me).

I think the case can be made that when you have a channel by which to make a point, you have a responsibility to everyone that might come across said channel to make a point. Not only that, but I feel a strong responsibility to make sure that the things I write have value, that I can look back on them and be both proud and energized to continue.

To say nothing of the political landscape in which we find ourselves, the responsibility I feel in this day and age is heavy. I am a cis white hetero male; I both ought to feel this burden and ought to work to do something about it.

In that vein, no matter what I do, I know that it is not enough. Reading, writing, donating, volunteering, marching, raising my children to understand their role in oppression and their responsibility to combat it, calling out those areas, even in myself, that need work, making everyone feel welcome in the places that I work and live.

I think my radio silence can be summed up in one idea, the one that causes me the most internal struggle of late: by being yet another white male voice on the Internet, whose voices are being discounted or suppressed because I felt mine had to be heard? On the flip side, if I say nothing, is my online ennui not also a form of complicity?