There was once a fellow by the name of Scott Nearing. He lived to be a little over 100 years old. He was one of the subjects of the Warren Beatty film REDS. In fact, he appears in the movie as one of the interviewees.

He was also on the infamous Black List of Joe McCarthy’s during the fifties. His protests and questionings of the government got him labeled as a “Communist”, and his books and statements were labeled as “unAmerican.” (Just for the Hell of it, can somebody tell me what makes something unAmerican? What is the definition of that word? Some people say that an unAmerican activity is something that goes against the Constitution of the United States. Well, if that’s the case, to my mind, it is unAmerican to label someone or someone’s actions as un-American in order to censor them just because they disagree with you. It has something to do with an “unalienable right” called Freedom of Speech…I’m pretty sure.)

Pete Seeger was on that list also. Did you know that? The guy who wrote Where Have All The Flowers Gone and who was recently honored at The Kennedy Center as an “American Treasure” was harassed in the fifties and sixties because of the lyrics of his songs, and he was labeled as a Communist! (Don’t you just LOVE the way some people throw that term around? Personally, I think that Communist has a catchy ring to it…but what do I know?)

Anyway, I digress.

Along with writing many books and articles giving his political views and pointing out the good and the bad aspects of our government and its policies, Scott Nearing also wrote many homespun and folksy books.

Some of these gentler books dealt with topics like living naturally, how to build a house out of field stones (which he and his wife Helen did), and how to make maple syrup.

When he was questioned on the wide variety of topics about which he wrote, Scott replied that he wrote the “Sweet Books” in order to make the “Sour Books” more palatable to the public. (Something about a spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down.)

However, the books that got all the attention were the “Sour Books”, and few people remember the “Sweet Books” today.

I was thinking about Mr. Nearing the other day because when I blog, I write about a wide variety of topics. Some of my topics anger some folks. Some make them laugh. Some make them feel all warm and gushy inside. My personal favorites are the ones that I think are really funny. (Yeah. I’m vain enough to re-read some of my posts and think that they’re hilarious…Sorry!) However, the ones that get the most reactions, by far, are the caustic, political ones.

I mean, cases in point are my last few posts. I’ve written three recent posts that have been fairly opinionated and, obviously, a tad inflammatory. The Problems with Religion, Parts 1 and 2 garnered a whole slew of comments on Blogster and on MyBloggers. You and Me and A.I.G. got a considerable amount on both sites also. However, the fairly happy and optimistic post called Blogging solicited a decent amount of MyBloggers comments but only 1 Blogster comment!

I guess people like to get pissed off, huh?

Okay. Well, I don’t write these things to pay the rent or anything like that. So it’s all right that all my posts are not well-read. I blog basically for my own pleasure.

It’s also okay with me that some folks, particularly on Blogster, for some reason or other, have called me a…(shudder!) COMMUNIST! To be honest, I kind of like being put in the same category as Scott Nearing and Pete Seeger!