Introduction

To whom it may concern:

I write to you, noble reader, from Kalamazoo, Michigan; a post-industrial paper town surrounded by the largest freshwater lakes on Earth.

This was once a prosperous place; a destination place; it's prosperity now replaced with complacency. Paper mills that once churned out white surfaces for dreamers now stand abandoned with windows painted over. There is no reflection here. That world is gone and this one is too.

We don't do paper. The brain in the sky keeping all hands idle. Our eyes drinking from faucets programmed by the Admen.

We don't write things down. We are being written down. Our data recorded by zealots eager to cash in on the work of others.

To what end? How many mountain tops can bully's be placed? How long can we blindly belittle thy neighbor under the leadership of the ill-advised and powerful?

No longer and not we, Steemians.

Which brings me to the purpose of this writing:

...from the darkness and despair that is much of our world, I am placing myself to brighten it; to make paper and fill it with my positive words and ideas; to paint pictures of a future I want to participate in; for our children and theirs... I am here.

Thank you for reading and allowing my stream of consciousness. I'm happy to become more acquainted with this community.

Jaffe