Welcome To Our Phone Booth

If you have not read it yet, then you should read Dalson Chen's column in the Star today: "It's time to think positive."

Imagine that...negativity going mainstream and by someone as young as Dalson. Now that is a shocker!

It must be that he has just accepted a job at a newspaper out West for him to dare write what he did. The Editor who approved it must also be looking for a new position. Both of them will need re-education clearly if they are to remain in Windsor.

Welcome to the world of many of the Bloggers in Windsor, Dalson. As he wrote and is something that I completely understand:

• "This is the 151st edition of my column. I've been writing in this space a little more than three years now.
  
  And something has changed since I started. I've become the sort of person who immediately thinks the worse of things. Especially when those things concern Windsor."

I have written over 1,800 BLOGs so think about how I feel! I sent him a note this morning trying to explain what I think are the reasons for his despair and what must be done to overcome it. I have written several BLOGS like this on this subject so I know exactly where he's coming from.

You might be interested in reading this part of the script from the movie "Network" that I sent him. It seems to fit:

• "I don't have to tell you things are bad.
  
  Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be.
  
  We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'
  
  Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.
  
  All I know is that first you've got to get mad. (shouting) You've got to say, 'I'm a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!'
  
  So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!'
  
  Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!...You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis.
  
  But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

Frankly, his "negative" column is one of the most "positive" events that could have happened. He has taken the first step and a brave one too given his job. He has gotten out of his chair. He is as mad as hell and he has just told everyone that he is not going to take it anymore! It's another start.

Welcome to the phone booth, Dalson. Our door is always open to you and others who feel as you do!