I am a writer. I am a writer simply due to the fact that I write.

I am a published writer. I am a published writer simply due to the fact that what I write is published for the public here on the internet, and in more traditional forms.

I am a serious political writer, and a serious writer of artistic fiction. I am a serious and artistic writer simply due to the fact that I take my writing seriously, my art seriously, and present it as such.

I can not decide if I am a good writer. Only you, the people who read my writings can decide if I am a good writer. I hope so, but alas, that decision is up to each of you.

I can not write in such a way as to never offend anyone. Every topic is offensive to someone, every opinion offensive to someone. Some things might only offend one other person in this whole wide world, while other things might offend large numbers of people.

My writing is bound to offend someone, from time to time.

If my writing never offended, it would not be serious, it would not be artistic, indeed it could be neither of those things for it would be false and shallow.

If I worried about whom I might offend with any particular piece of writing, I would be left with no writing at all. I would not be a writer, for all serious and artistic writing will offend someone.

I am blessed to live in a nation that values freedom. That protects the right, granted to me by god, to express myself through the written word, no matter how many people it may offend.

I am sorry if my writing offends you, my reader, but I can not, and will not self-censor myself for you because if I were to do so, I would not be a serious writer.

As has been seen here, today and in the past, I will publish your offended comments, provided that they are sanely written. I do not shy away from those who criticize my writing. I do though notice that such criticism is often, as it was again today, posted anonymously. I might say in a coward's way. My writing may offend from time to time, but at least I have the courage to stand behind it, not hide behind the privacy features this software has to offer.

Words of police and the courts. Nonsense of course given that we do live in a free nation, a nation that protects the free expression of writers. Such words though do point to a certain personality. A personality that embraces totalitarianism. A personality that may be comfortable living within a police state where no one is allowed to offend another. An extremely dangerous personality as has been shown countless times through the march of history.

One of the prices of freedom is that one will be offended from time to time. The price of never being offended is living under tyranny. I prefer living in the United States to living under totalitarianism. I hope that my readers do as well.

This post will likely send a regular and valued reader away. I am sorry for that because I have enjoyed our exchanges in the past, and enjoyed his blogs. I can't not make the post though, I can't not write what I must write even if I know that it will offend my reader for if I did I would not be able to call myself a writer.