. . .
K “Do something, anything (good).”
. . .
K “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’25 . . . do something, anything (good). . . . If I could offer you only one tip for the future . . . do something, anything (good). You have been studying and partying and extracurricularing at a frantic and frenetic pace. Now is the time to . . . do something, anything (good). We are all anesthetized and lobotomized and desensitized. And do not realize it. Unable to act. Unable to think. Unable to feel. Unable to react. Unable to respond. Unable to able. . . . The Smarty Pants phone is not that smart. Spurn and reject and repudiate and put down your false lover – the Fondle Slab – and step back. Stand up; sit in. . . . Your fears are so well-founded; the saber-toothed tiger lurks everywhere and is on the prowl all the time. And breeding. . . . Read “Everything Is A Fight Today.” Please répondez s’il vous plaît. Oh, And Happy Solstice! (June 17, 2024) for a discussion of our plight and the fight today. Listen to Bob [Marley]. ‘Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our mind.’ Free your mind. Yourself. Live, love, learn. Do something, anything (good). Go.”
. . .
K “Wear sunscreen. Wear hearing protection; listen attentively. Wear chainsaw safety chaps; cut with care. Eat dessert: First. Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie). Stop, pause, think. Eschew fear. Transcend: Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude). Find the First Amendment. Plant a garden. Do something, anything (good).”
. . .
J “How about work to ‘Ban the Internet’ as graduation advice for the entire nation to graduate to a more sane and fulfilling existence? Or work to ‘Sensibly license the Internet akin to shortwave radio licensing’ to save the nation?”
K “That works. That is doing something, anything (good).”
. . .
[See the original “Sunscreen Column”, the Wikipedia article “Wear Sunscreen” and listen to “Everbody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.]
[See the e-commentary at The Möbius Loop Of Stupidity, Dishonesty, Hypocrisy, Incompetence, Indifference, Arrogance, . . . Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 25, 2019), Graduation Advice: Plant A Garden (May 13, 2024), Graduation Advice: Find The First Amendment (May 15, 2023), Graduation Advice: Transcend: Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude) (May 16, 2022), Graduation Advice: Eschew Fear (May 10, 2021), Graduation Advice: Stop, Pause, Think (May 18, 2020), Graduation Advice: Learn To Tie a Bowline (And A Bow Tie) (May 13, 2019), Graduation Advice: Eat Dessert. First. (May 14, 2018), Graduation Advice: Wear Chainsaw Safety Chaps; Cut With Care (May 15, 2017), Graduation Advice: Wear Hearing Protection; Listen Attentively (May 16, 2016), TeeVee, The Fondle Slab And L’Internet (May 17, 2021), Stalking The Stalking Saber-toothed Tiger (June 12, 2023) and the advice to youth at Go East, Young Person (August 25, 2014).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Wear sunscreen. Wear hearing protection; listen attentively. Wear chainsaw safety chaps; cut with care. Eat dessert: First. Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie). Stop, pause, think. Eschew fear. Transcend: Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude). Find the First Amendment. Plant a garden. Do something, anything (good).
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our mind.” Bob Marley, “Redemption Song”
Flee the Mobius Loop
Meditate mudita; repudiate schadenfreude
Répondez s’il vous plait
“We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. . . . We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Tenth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2025 (May 5, 2025)
Posted in Journalism, Pushitzer Prize In Commentary on May 5, 2025 by e-commentary.org. . .
“The envelope please. . . . This year’s Pushitzer Prize in Commentary is awarded to . . . Chris Hedges . . . Sage, poet, moralist, philosopher, historian, he is the soul and conscience of today’s small cadre of honest, concerned and courageous journalists and commentators. For his efforts stirring the pot, asking hard questions, demanding answers, rejecting lies, spotlighting uncomfortable truths, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. And being a model journalist.”
J “He speaks truth.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary on the Commentary Award and previous recipients at Ninth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2024 (May 6, 2024), Eighth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2023 (May 8, 2023), Seventh Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2022 (May 9, 2022), Sixth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2021 (June 7, 2021), Fifth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2020 (May 4, 2020), Fourth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2019 (April 15, 2019), Third Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2018 (April 16, 2018), Second Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2017 (April 10, 2017), First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016) and Pulitzers Are Pro-War? Pressing The Pushitzers (April 22, 2013).]
[Please send your nomination for the Pushitzer Prize in Commentary for 2026 and a supporting letter by January 21, 2026 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy our economy.” Chris Hedges
Make journalism great again
Make journalism journalism again
Knowledge is not power, but ignorance is powerless
“First they came for the journalists. We don’t know what happened after that.”
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.” George Orwell
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