This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is My Land

Inkspired Members Have Something To Say That You Haven’t Seen Yet

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When the co-founders of Inkspired climbed to the top of the Substack heap and looked at the vast landscape of more than 75,000 newsletters going to more than 40 million subscribers, we wondered, has anyone counted the number of writers on Substack and Medium who are 60 or older and still wandering the online frontier, looking for a place to plant their flag or stake their claim?

Maryan Pelland has a reputation and plenty of admiration for her mastery of the data that defines and drives Substack's growth. She’s beyond persistent and thorough when it comes to writing for love and profit. She knows style manuals better than the editors. When she told me there are 40,000 writers, somewhere near or past their 60th birthday, and her vision for Inkspired, I scrambled to the top of the heap to join her and commit passionately to the adventure of writing with you.

That’s what makes this a whack on the side of the head. I don’t have to write all articles. It’s better if I don’t. This Substack is your new land and my land, from California to New York Island, and then globally. The writers arriving here every day and subscribing are the winners—smarter, older, wiser, faster, and more experienced. These are the “cool kids” we love to hang with and write with because they have so much to offer and they stopped wilting at the first sign of criticism decades ago! They have something to say and they want to write about topics that matter and have meaning. This is not the AI-crutch writing group, either. Technology is their assistant, not their distraction.

Each time an Inkspired member shows up in the comments, notes, and email for Maryan or me, Georgia Patrick, we do more than “like” them. We take time to notice them, study their writing, subscribe to their Substack, and look for ways to amplify them through our strengths in writing, editing, publishing, marketing, and community building.

Gloria Christie is a journalist with multiple college degrees and calls herself the Katherine Hepburn of high-tech and writing. She wrote concurrently for four publications: Addictinginfo.org, the Kansas City Star, The Best Times, and IDG-Connect.com. If you are thinking freelance writer think again—as in holding down four jobs at the same time. Fast forward to today and find her Substack at GloriaChristieReports and her practice as a change consultant.

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

How in the world do you expect me to write anything when there is so much distraction with the chaos of horrific news every 15 minutes since Trump took over the Oval Office four weeks ago? Four weeks? It seems like four years of extremes. It’s not normal and it’s exhausting. When politics seems like the last thing I want to read next, can we count on Gloria to give us context, lived experience, and immediately helpful words?

Here’s her words, for you the Inkspired. Please share it with everyone who wants to know what you did today in the Inkspired community and why you are asking another writer to join you.

Taking Back Our Political Lives

How To Move From Overwhelm To Self-Controlled

by Gloria Christie

Our lives as individuals and as a community are being shaped by politics, such as the firing of hundreds of FAA workers. We cannot ignore politics, but we can pull it back from an outsized and overwhelming shape to one where we are informed and able to see action steps. Doing so allows us to take better control of our lives.

I think about what the recent news has been doing to us. We wince at the vision of a Delta airplane landing upside down in Toronto with black smoke billowing out from licking fire shards and one wing missing. My mind leaps to the inside of that plane—its passengers dangling from a seatbelt. How is it possible that all of them survived with only 20 injured, and most of those already treated?

The heroic efforts of the flight attendants and the firefighter crew account for most of the benign fortuitous results. The firefighter response standard is to arrive at the disaster within three minutes, but it felt as if their trucks arrived even sooner.

Eighty people boarded the plane in Minneapolis taking their safety for granted. But what about us? Do we abandon flying altogether? After all, 67 people died in the cold waters of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. just two weeks ago. After an accident-free 15 years, a military helicopter and passenger jet collided, according to the FAA website.There are those of us who crawl into the safety of our warm caves and act like hermits. Train travel may increase.

Photo by Hendrik Cornelissen on Unsplash

Let’s say those are our three options. People will choose which fits best for themselves:

1. Withdraw from the outside world.

2. Avoid all planes, or

3. Come up with a different option.

The same holds true for how we choose to deal with the chaotic political stew where we find ourselves sitting.

Withdraw From The Outside World

If we are fortunate enough to work from home, we could order a lifetime supply of Twinkies®, enough Root Beer float ingredients to travel the River Styx and back again, and sign up for a potato chip of the month package. There are advantages to doing this. A person could live in her sweats, and no one would criticize her housekeeping. On the downside, she would have to play chess by herself.

Avoid All Politics

The news is filled with an overwhelming amount of political speak. We could turn off the television and all electronic devices. But there is our Aunt Tillie who likes the President so much that she sleeps in one of his long nightshirts. How do we avoid loved, albeit slightly deranged, relatives who speak of nothing else other than their devotion to Trump? After all, she makes chocolate chip cookies every time we visit. It is a quandary.

Come Up With A Different Option

This choice gives us something to work with, around, and behind. Those who fear plane rides might find they enjoy train rides. If enough people felt the same, we could see a resurgence of Amtrack. We might even begin to enjoy a slower pace. One of the all-time peak moments of my life was sitting in the driver’s seat of a mile-long ore train on the Iron Range. The point is that we have options. Rather than live in fear of tomorrow, Americans can take control of their situations.

There are support groups and communities, where people take control of their lives:

1. Make signs

2. Go to protests.

3. Call and write letters to senators, representatives, and local newspapers.

4. Learn about the issues at hand.

5. Read about the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which was established in 1948. Ken Martin is the new chairman.

Longtime journalist, Dan Rather wrote in his Substack newsletter, “Steady:

“Last week Elon Musk called for the firing of journalists who have written less than glowingly about his Department of Government Efficiency. He has gone so far as to call their writings “possibly criminal.” This would fall under the heading “abridging freedom of speech.” At the same time, Musk amplifies lies and baseless claims to his 217 million followers on X. Because he owns the platform, he is also dictating content moderation rules. The fox is in charge of the hen house.”

But we are neither the hens nor the fox. We are the Americans taking charge of our lives.

Thank you for spending some of your time with me.