ABOUT
THE
EDITOR
"Your
work is remarkably clever and appealing."
—
EDITORIAL
BOARD
OF
A
MAJOR
WRITERS
SYNDICATE
My name is Douglas
Drenkow (The "w" is silent; I rarely am).
From time to time
I plead the First Amendment and publish in this website original
compositions, primarily essays on socio-political issues from
what is sometimes termed a "progressive" perspective
but what I like to call "reality."
You remember
"reality," don't you? It's that bothersome thing that
used to exist before the George Orwell Bush Administration. Or
was it the Reagan Revolution or Watergate or Vietnam that put us
"through the looking glass"?
Regardless, I just want to
assure you that whether you agree or disagree with what I write, you can
have complete confidence that I will tell you the truth as I know it.
Of course, that's exactly
what every liar, fool, and psychotic will tell you, too.
In the "Values &
Issues" archives, sorted first by general subject matter and then
in reverse chronological order, you may read some of the hundreds of
essays I have composed over the last twenty-five years, including
Letters to the Editor that have been published in the Los Angeles Times,
editorial replies that I have delivered on Los Angeles network
television stations, research that I have discussed as a guest or as a
guest host/producer on a Pasadena-area cable-access TV talk show/webcast
or as a guest on a Los Angeles-area radio show, essays that have
stirred-up considerable controversy in the newsgroup of a Democratic
National Committee member, postings contributed as a guest blogger to
influential websites from Los Angeles ("GordonTalk")
to Pittsburgh ("Comments
From Left Field"), commentaries published online in "OpEdNews"
(read by over 300,000 visitors a month), works quoted by BBC News World
Edition and Universal Press International and throughout the Internet,
and sample columns that have received high praise from literary and
political reviewers.
Although my eye is on the
21st Century, I trace my political roots back to the 19th Century, when
my Great-Grandpa Henry Winter immigrated from Germany and proudly became
an American and a Democrat, eventually attending Democratic national
conventions in support of presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan,
champion of small farmers, like Great-Grandpa, and industrial workers
(Let's not get into that Monkey Trial thing, OK?). Like my Great-Grandpa
Winter, my Grandpa Drenkow, and my dear old Dad, I am a liberal Democrat
— primarily because I believe in the fair distribution of power,
wealth, and opportunity. Nothing is more just; nothing is more
pragmatic; nothing is more American.

The
family of my Great-Grandfather & -Grandmother Winter,
whose
centennial in America was featured in the 1971 Academy Award®-
nominated
Short Subject, The Numbers Start With The River
Although
no one loves our country more than our family (May Osama Bin Laden rot
in Jahannam), no one hates war more than my father — ever since
as a young man he witnessed the endless parade of amputees returning
from Europe in World War II — or more than I — ever since as a young
Baby Boomer I witnessed the endless barrage of carnage broadcast from
Vietnam on TV.

President
Clinton at the Baldwin Hills Mall, in the fall of 2000,
where
I worked as a volunteer in cooperation with the Secret Service;
to
read more of my work on political campaigns, please
click here.
Moreover,
having graduated with highest honors from the College of Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences at the University of California at Davis,
having created and published pioneering computer databases on the
biological control of insects distributed worldwide as through the
Entomological Society of America, and having gardened organically now
for over thirty years, I am committed to protecting and enjoying the
environment, our Mother Nature.
And
finally, from my mother's side, I have inherited the traditions of the
Roman Catholic Church, which I continue, as with weekly attendance at
mass. Like many American Catholics (including a family from
Massachusetts oft-touched by greatness and tragedy) I disagree with
certain doctrines of the Church; however, I respect and try my best to
practice the central dogma, applicable to politics and all other aspects
of life: Love God — to me, the spirit of truth and love — with all
your heart, mind, and soul; and love thy neighbor as thyself.
I
am a firm believer in "tolerance": Personally, my life would
be far less tolerable — and enjoyable — without my family and
friends from across the social, racial, religious, and political
spectrum. Why, even some Republicans aren't all bad (just don't quote me
on that).
I
hope you will find my writing, philosophy, observations, and the like
interesting, enlightening, agreeable, aggravating, or anything but
boring. Please feel free to click the Feedback link and email me your
thoughts: This is not quite a blog (I don't have time for all that) but
on occasion I may post a response to one of my writings if I think it
might be of interest to others.
Then
again, this site is sort of like the military: I'm here to defend
democracy, not necessarily practice it!
And
I won't post any feedback on that.
For more information
about yours truly, please visit DouglasDrenkow.com.
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