If I ever harbored the notion that the words "good" and "politician" could be used in the same sentence, I was disabused of it by San Francisco politics. Someone wrote that this is the most politically corrupt town they had seen since old Chicago. After working with and for a few of this cities more reknowned political personalities, I learned that the only people possibly more venal and self-absorbed than politicians are probably rock musicians and actors. I myself coined the phrase, here in San Francisco, that you can't spend much time around a politician without feeling like you need to take six showers.
I learned that we in the United States are better at talking a good game, about the problems like homelessness, increasing poverty among women and children, and taking care of our elderly, than we ever care to be about playing a good game. Like John Gardner's fictional Grendel, we have come to believe that the saying is the same as the making(in German usage of the word.) But making is about action, not sound-bites or homilies.
That's why the GENERATOR 21 has never been shy about encouraging you to action, on and off line.
I also learned, while living here in San Francisco during the greater part of what should best be remembered as the "P" decade[Pepsi, (neo)Puritanism, and Pop Culture,] about the breath-taking impact which technology can have on our lives. I never would have imagined myself, or my writing, causing me to become a part of overlapping, but not intersecting communities of individuals, here and abroad, most of whom I have never met.
As you run your eyes down this page, for the first time, or on a return visit(I trust,) you are more than likely one of the thousands of people I have never personally met while producing these 126 "events" from San Francisco over the past twenty-six months. You could be one of the hundreds who have written me over that span, to praise, criticize, encourage or incite, who I shall never meet. You could be someone who has written or contributed here, who I would not recognize if I passed you on the street. Nonetheless, each of you in your own way has been a part of my daily life. The latter group is like family to me...
So... The process of taking myself, and this magazine, back East is much akin to that of returning to an old lover whom you have never been able to put out of your mind. I came West knowing that it would be a series of courtships, dangerous liaisons, and a few laugh-filled flings if I was lucky. I got more than I bargained for, including a marriage. The last thing I knew, I was on my way to Mexico to live on the beach in Oaxaca and write novels.
The next thing I know, I'm planning ways to keep publishing a magazine every week while traveling across country.
As Salvador Dali said, "The secret of my influence was that it was a secret."
We're glad you're here. We have a lot to offer this(and EVERY) week. Stick around. More importantly: TELL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR FRIENDS. We want you here EVERY DAY.
WHY?
Because we like you....
Be Good to Each Other,
Rod
Our Editor does listen!