The little town you left wanted to keep you The dreamer never dies

 I wish that I remembered the context of this drawing.

Photo for the blog format tax.

I know I had talked about this on my LiveJournal, but since I no longer have access to it, I wanted to have this in place as reference, too.

Once upon a time, I used to write for my high school newspaper. There were a couple of articles and pieces that I wrote that I now believe to be insensitive or where I misspoke facts.

I also know that  I did this as a child, who was under the guidance of multiple adults who should have told me no, been better guidance, or helped fact check. 

One of these pieces that I had written was an essay about the socialist script writer of a problematic film. This may have come across as a defense of the film itself, and in some ways, may have been (it's been almost 20 years, I haven't seen the article in years). It was misguided and the high school paper was not the best place for this. 

Whilst my views on the film itself have changed and matured over time, I will say that, if nothing else, my respect and empathy towards the marginalized people who worked on the film is even more devout. Now with the rise of the internet and leaning more about these people, I have had even more profound respect for them than I had had before. I think that is one of the things that gets lost when talking about this film--it is more than its salacious reputation, and it's a conversation that requires empathy and nuance. I think that is what I had tried to do when I was 16 or 17, but didn't have the access to knowledge or the language skills in order to convey that. It was a misguided attempt on my part to recognize the humanity of the people in the film, which so often gets sidelined in favor of clicks and views.

I know this all seems inconsequential, but to me it isn't. I spend a lot of time carefully thinking about the ways I speak and interact with this world, and yes, it does bother me that I did this. Even if it never comes up again, and is largely forgotten in the fabric of time, I want to use as a learning experience for myself as an adult--I did this, and I cannot go back and undo this, so how can I fix it now?