Welcome- Happy 2017

Until 2016, I never really felt like years had any value beyond being a unit of time. There are good times in years, there are bad times in years. Very few years are all of anything. I have to be honest though- when midnight struck last night, I mentally and physically just felt better. It was like a weight left my back, and I was allowed to breath again. Last year was the worst damn year of my life, period. I had family members die, a dog die, friends suffer horrible tragedies, personal issues, and really didn't have a lot positive happen to me. In reality, not everything that happened to me last year was bad, but it did feel like it was. I felt like I played the whole year on defense, and like I was barely outrunning disaster at all times. This is no way to live- it robs you of the ability to dream, to plan, and to execute the life you want. It wastes your time, which is your most precious resource- it alone decides when your life ends.

My 2016 is over though, and so is your's. We're entering a new year, a fresh start. I must confess, I'm not optimistic about the state of the world, America, or really much of anything, but it's still a fresh start. It's like Opening Day when your favorite team is expected to finish in last place that season- you have high hopes, but you kind of expect them to be dashed. That's about where I see American life as 2017 begins. I don't hear a lot of high hopes, and sometimes I hear people outright predicting the apocalypse. Hey though, at least last year is over. For some people, even that faint, hopeless glimmer on the horizon is enough to make them feel optimistic. You will find I'm far more of a realist than one to be an optimist. Maybe things will turn out great in the end, and life will go on happily. Maybe we're on the brink of Rome after the barbarians sacked them in 410 A.D.

I'm mostly creating this blog to chronicle my life, and the world around me, in the age after Obama-ism. Some (smart) journalists are referring to the "Age of Trump" as post-fact America, and I can't say that's wrong- facts and statistics are a thing for people who want to be right, opinions are for people who want to vocalize how they feel. If the stores in your downtown are closing, and your wages aren't paying for as much as they used to, it doesn't much matter to you if the economists are on TV saying the economy is growing. People are going to form opinions based on their own opinions, and people get to vote. The problem of course, is that they might vote stupid (sound familiar?), and policy might be set based on the opinions of people who aren't necessarily feeling what is statistically happening, and you know, that causes problems and stuff. The main point I'm making here is that no matter how many times you tell me Jason Heyward is a top ten player in Major League Baseball based on his WAR (Wins Above Replacements), when I watch him play over seven seasons and hit .262 with 104 homers in 977 games, your stat doesn't move my opinion much. In short, I somewhat buy into a post-fact world.

Now that I've said that, let me contrast that against my actual life. I am a big baseball fan, and I actually do believe in WAR and sabermetrics, and think they have a positive use in running a team. I work in politics as the day job, both as staff and as an elected official. I am a township Auditor in Palmer Township, elected in 2015, as well as a member of the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee, elected out of Northampton County. I'm a veteran of Hillary's 2008 and 2016 campaigns (Ohio and South Carolina primaries in 2008, North Carolina general election in 2016), OFA (President Obama's organization), Senators Dodd, Menendez, and Booker's campaigns, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman's election in 2014- and I'm a huge believer in using statistical analysis, modeling electoral behavior by the numbers, and generally being as scientific as possible in running a campaign. In short, I believe in running the world by numbers, facts, science, and all things that are not based on one individual's personal experience, or even the opinion of a significant minority (or for that matter, an uninformed majority).

I'm a "millennial" as a matter of technicality, born in 1983 (the very beginning of my generation), though I don't know that the label fits all that well. I'm not married, and I have no kids, and while those domestic things do interest me somewhat, I'm not exactly sold on the 21st century nuclear family. I hate libertarian politics, even though I do believe in the power of markets to change human conditions. I hate nativists and xenophobes, even though I do have a healthy amount of respect for tradition. I find myself sometimes angry at Social Justice movements and progressives over tactics and goals, even though I agree with them on nearly all political issues. I don't pretend to believe i'm unique or special at all, I just tend to view myself as a cold realist when it comes to the direction of the world- but I call my heroes Robert F. Kennedy, John Lennon, and Pope Francis- all of whom were willing to test the boundaries of reality in their leadership. If it seems that i'm contradictory and confused inside, that's fine, because I am- and so are all of you. Human-beings are contradictory creatures, and we often times find ourselves torn between competing wants and needs. It's why we make irrational decisions, and it's why we cannot predict human behavior with some sort of algorithm that allows us to command and control life from some central place.

Now that i'm done contradicting myself, I'll reveal more about my life later. For now, I'll just thank you for reading, and wish you a happy new year. Today is page one in a 365 blank page book, and together we get to write it.