I was being lied to.
I had been given a gift but I wasn’t sure what it was that I was really working on. I had a lot on my mind and was trying to figure out what I really wanted. Even though I had been given an idea it had to measure up to what I really wanted in life and for my personal growth.
One of the thought experiments I had given to myself went something like this: If I was marooned on a dead planet that once had a really robust society, what would I like to find? I decided I would want a daily log of that society of some sort that would tell me the important events and people that were involved.
I wanted to look at the biggest picture I could find of society that would give me context as to when other events happened around it. I wanted it to be in the language of the day, not told to me by some historians’ interpretation of events with no other context. I have a hard time remembering what happened four days ago, let alone 4 weeks ago, or even 4 years or decades ago.
At first I thought I was just putting a book together for Trump’s first four years in office. I wanted to revisit every story, every slight, every barb and I wanted to see who was responsible for pushing most of the lies and stories. I had to separate each news source so that I could see one network in one place without all the noise of pictures and flair.
I also found the need to have a common ground between left and right. My opinion doesn’t matter with this work as it is just headlines in chronological order. I knew when I started this thing that I would probably find things that would confirm my world view but that I may find things that are very opposite of the things I believe. I made peace with the fact that the methodology I was using was sound even if things became unpleasant. It was important to me that if someone wanted to fact check my work or even duplicate it that it would be very easy to recreate and would show where a person could go to read the articles involved.
As I began to work on this more and more I realized that this structure is so much more. I really feel in my heart this is a matrix for international understanding if used correctly.
One of the things I am more concerned about is a failure of electronics. If a Carrington event or something along those lines were to happen we would lose about two decades of digital information. My belief is that we can get something of this in print before that happens we will have some history to fall back on and remember what led up to collapse. It could be an item of study and a tool for storytelling when there is nothing else to rely on. One headline could probably get me talking for about a half an hour with all the other stories it relates to. Sometimes it can jog a personal memory that will start you along another tangent.
The last thing I was focused on was integrity. I don’t trust too many people. The reason I don’t trust people is I feel that everyone has an agenda. I have an agenda. I want people to know their history. I want people to make up their own minds. I don’t trust people that are controlled by money. If you take a look at my website you’ll notice I don’t have any ads. I don’t have links to any websites. The headline is the information. I do have a crying plea to donate to my Venmo but I’m not mad at anyone that doesn’t contribute. I thought that if people saw the value they would contribute. I’m probably wrong about that.
My overall vision would be to have thousands of people doing this. Even if it’s just one news source, many hands make light work. If we could catalogue a version of this for every news source through recorded history we would find out many things that have remained in the dark due to being overloaded with other news. It immortalizes wins and loses and keeps some of those names in our memory. If we forget our past we are doomed to repeat it. This is the way to approach it in a relatively unbiased way.
It’s taken me quite a while just working on one news sources archive (New York Times) but I have completed about 60 years of it. I hope some others will take on the old headlines from some other sources like the LA Times or Chicago Tribune. This work will never be finished or completed in my lifetime but I hope some people get interested in it like I have. I have spread out to the middle east and 40 other countries and their stories tell me things I never hear in the US.
I will continue this project. I have high hopes for it. I’m not sure I will have any success with this in my lifetime but I’m dedicated to the task and hope that you will learn from what I have done as well. My life has improved considerably due to this project and I am more secure in the things that I say due to having an understanding of some of our shared past.
I don’t know where this journey will end. I’m glad you’re here. I can’t make you read any of it, but I’d be more than excited to talk about it if you do.
If people do donate to my venmo and I get enough to print books I plan on making one for 2020 and 2021 at least. The COVID years have turned into something amazing. I’m not sure why this minimum wage worker was given this task but I’m more than happy to be the first one working on it.