Please allow me to introduce myself...

I'm not a gal of wealth and taste.

If you get that reference, good. Keep up. If not, you'll need Google. A lot. I tend to reference books, short stories, poetry, songs, movies, and anything else that comes to mind that helps me get my point across.

I'm a part-time college-level English instructor at a small, Midwestern University. I have opinions that typically don't match up with those of my colleagues. I don't always feel safe expressing them. Many times, I'm afraid that, were I to express what I truly think, my contract wouldn't be renewed. I love my job too much to let my own opinions, which have nothing to do with the teaching of freshmen how to write coherent, cohesive essays, get in the way of me keeping my job. However, I also believe that my students who've served fought too hard to give my colleges nationwide the privilege to shoot off at the mouth to not exercise my own right to do so. Thus, this.

I won't be publishing blog entries about my personal life. I won't talk about my students, except in the most general of terms. I won't talk about pop-culture (unless it's absolutely relevant to what I have to say). I don't do gossip.

What this blog will be about is simple: my opinions on current political and world affairs. My opinions. Not my colleagues' opinions. Not the main-stream media's opinions. Not (necessarily) conservative talk-radio opinions. Mine. This does not, or at least should not, reflect upon my employer. Nor should it be considered to reflect upon my friends, family, or associates.