Hi. We’ve been here before —you, me, this whole newsletter business. A few years back I had a newsletter of my own, but I disconnected it for a variety of reasons: time, energy, spending even more time at my computer than I already do, etc.
This time, I’ve created a newsletter for different reason. I’m getting rid of Facebook. Took me long enough, but I’ve finally had it. I’m done. The doom-scrolling has gotten the best of me.
But I still want to have a way to tell you about my work, which is why this newsletter will go out once a month providing you with updates. Subscribe here to read my latest stories, stay up to date on what I’m working on (in short: I’m working on a lot) and stay in touch. You can do a free subscription, or — to the many people who ask me how to financially support my work — you can do a paid one that will give you some extra stuff.
I appreciate every last person who seeks out my work more than I can ever express to you. When I started freelancing seven years ago, I had a lot of people tell me I’d never make it. But I have. And that’s because I’ve had support from people like you, who care about truth.
People laugh when I tell them that I’m a journalist because I believe in people. Even 15+ years after I started my first journalism job, and after spending so much of that time writing about really awful things, I still believe people can be good. I’m an optimist. I’m trying to stay one, and whenever anxiety gets the best of me at the end of the day, I think it’s because I’m having a harder time staying optimistic lately.
Here’s one thing that isn’t helping: because of Facebook, I have a poorer opinion of the people I love, and I can only see that declining further in the next two months. In the past 24 hours, I’ve seen people I know share misinformation, propaganda and lies. It was stunning to me to witness: racist memes, blatant lies, twisting of the truth, flagrant exaggeration, gross fighting. Scrolling through it all made me understand how susceptible people I know are. They use this technological platform, but they don’t really understand how it works, or that it’s a marketing platform, or that they’re being fed content that continues to push them toward extremes. I was shocked to see that people don’t seem to understand that Facebook is a petri dish for lies and hate. If anything, the platform has proven to me that, yes, I too know racists. Yes, I know lazy people who believe their “likes” and “shares” actually mean something. Yes, I know people who still believe the President of the United States is a “good businessman” and not a racist, but instead, a victim who is being bullied by liberals. There is no critical thinking behind this.
Yesterday a man was killed in the city I love. Details are still scarce. All I know is that a man is dead, and it happened around the corner from where I held my wedding rehearsal dinner 14 years ago, where my husband and I held glasses up to family and friends, and toasted to the power of love. To full, happy lives.
This act of violence in Portland — which occurred during a protest where people are fighting for an end to racist policing — follows violence that occurred just days earlier in Wisconsin. Now people are posting on Facebook that they’ll seek retribution in Portland with more violence. I am not a violent person. I believe violence accomplishes nothing.
I have to refocus. We all do. I’m trying to live a full, happy life based in love, understanding, acceptance and truth. And I can’t do that if I continue to support a platform that encourages hatred, fear, bigotry and lies.
As a native Oregonian and longtime Portlander, this resonates deeply. Every word. I’m here for this.