About Doug's Views

Hello

Welcome to Doug's Views. You are on this page probably wanting to know more about this Blog and about me.

Who is Doug?

I live in the state of Ohio, also known as the Midwest of the United States. I grew up to fend for myself and to question everything about my world. I think the best skill a person can have is to think for themselves and be as skeptical as possible about everything.

I grew up poor. We lived in an old house trailer for many years and we were on welfare at times because my Mom was affected by the economic downturns of the 70's and 80's.

I was lucky enough to go to school in a district that took pride in excellent schools. And it helped they had the money to do it. That's why I believe a well-rounded education is one way of changing one's social economic status. I did get picked on because of my social status but that didn't last too long.

That's not to say I am a rich successful person now, or that I am entirely happy where I am at on the economic ladder, but it sure beats living in an old trailer with sulfur contaminated water. Those who think they have it bad should try having to go to the bathroom in a chamber pot because the water pipes and sewer are frozen solid in the dead of winter. Or wake up in that same winter to find you ran out of propane used to run the furnace.

I like to read books and I use to be a news junkie. I say I use to be because when I loved the news was back in the old days when news was something of substance instead of the sound bites and infotainment we see and hear today. That's why I still love newspapers.

I have been a Secular Humanist, officially, since 1994. I am not anti-religious nor did I have a bad experience with religion. I had the opportunity to explore the different religious sects that had churches in my hometown. Church was very important to friends of mine over the years. In fact, my Boy Scout troop was sponsored by the local Knight's of Columbus, a Catholic fraternity. On Sunday mornings, while on weekend camp outs, we all attended Mass. I was not a member of the church but I had to go none the less. I became a Humanist and an Atheist because the message in the churches just didn't make sense to me or have relevance to my life. Those messages still don't, even today.

As I said the best skill for a person, to have, is to think for themselves and be as skeptical as possible about everything. That led me to reject religion. Although I can't understand why others can't come to the same conclusion I did, I would not want to force them to come to MY conclusion.

Where else in the world can people of such diverse religious view points live together in relative peace? Only in a country that has strong tradition of protecting freedom of religion and keeping religion and government separate. That allows non-believers like myself to enjoy everything the United States has to offer and that includes all the opportunities.

What boils my blood are those who want to force their sectarian views on others through control of the government and special laws that follow. They want to destroy our educational system by passing their biblical beliefs off as fact. They want to continually discriminate against classes of people who don't happen to believe exactly as they do.

Politically I am an independent. I am not fond of the two party system we are forced to deal with each year. I really don't care for conservative Republicans and I refuse to vote for them on principle and Democrats aren't that much better. I choose to vote for the people who offer real solutions to solving problems that come up.

Although I do feel my vote doesn't always matter, I do vote. Anyone who believes not voting is some how a protest against the present system is not seeing the whole picture. Not voting because you don't like the offerings will NEVER change the system. We need to get everyone in the past who hasn't voted to vote. Then the system might change for the better. We need baby steps.

In my spare time I fiddle on the computer (I work on my friends' desktops when they don't work and I built my own system) and I like to write short fiction and recently started learning how to write screenplays.

I think and write too much. More than the average person. That's why I have this Blog.

Why this Blog?

I came across Blogger.com back in 2000 and found the concept of weblogs interesting. I started one called Cadfile's View of the World and added a link to my website on Geocities. Then I let it sit and stagnate.

In the meantime I continued to write essays that I posted on my website about various issues. It is hard work because I am not a designer. I'm a writer.

Blogger.com offered me a way to focus on the writing and less on the formatting and design of the page. It allowed me some creative freedom and presented my collected writing in an eye pleasing format.

Doug's Views was created in 2003 when I rebranded my original blog Cadfile's View of the World and contains the same general content. Entries will depend on what I want to say at the moment with no particular theme or focus. It is like an electronic notebook.

I recently moved this blog to my own server and converted it to a Movable Type blog. I wanted to have more control over the presentation of the content and to be able to add all the bells and whistles I think I want.

The viewpoint of this blog is mine alone and I am solely responsible for the content. I encourage feedback including comments and will post those that are made. I do reserve the right to remove objectionable comments or to edit comments for length.

I will still probably post stand alone essays on my websites but for now I like the blog.

Feel free to contact me, subscribe to the blog, or leave comments to my posts.