On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

I refuse to become an American on any terms set forth by Donald Trump and his enablers and accomplices. I refuse to be coerced into American citizenship.

I am a Canadian by birth and by choice.

Should I decide to change this position, it will be in a time and place and for reasons of my choosing.

This is not meant as disrespect to the American nation and those who choose to be part of it, whether they are so recognized or not. In nationality, as in religion, there must be no coercion. I am convinced that most who see themselves as American agree with me on this point.

Those who demand the right to coerce any and all of us in such things...they have earned our shared disrespect and contempt.

I recognize and remember that such coercion has been committed by past and current governments of both Canada and the States. Such coercion must cease, and reparations made to whatever degree possible to those who've suffered as a result.

There are others things that need saying, and I hope to determine what those things should be. In the meantime, let's carry on with all our business matters and personal amusements to whatever degree we can.

2023 Edition

With apologies to Matt Dusk.

A lot of you have been here with me a while, so you can skip this one, as it's for the newer arrivals. It's been three years since the last edition, so it's overdue.

I'm Dwight Williams. That's the name my parents gave me, and I continue to hold onto it for lack of anything better to choose to adopt.

I've been an office worker, an artist (comic books, courtroom art, and op-ed cartoons) and a writer. I am a member of the precariate, seeing as my work situation is always uncertain from month to month. Somehow, I still manage to be able to afford this Dreamwidth account for now.

You could call me "cis-het-male", "settler-descended", "white", "Euro-Canadian"...and I am not interested in restricting my friendships and other relationships to those circles. I can't afford that habit to begin with, and it's damned boring besides. To those of you, whether you're inside or outside such circles, who call me friend here and elsewhere: I thank you. You are doing me a kindness for any number of reasons of your own, and it's appreciated.

I live in a place with at least two identities: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada...and also the unceded traditional territory of the Omàmiwininiwak (or as non-Indigenous Canadians were taught, the Algonquin people). Neither of these identities are wrong to me.

I'm a fan of super-heroes, space opera, crime drama, mysteries, science fiction in general...and I read a lot of other stuff besides.

This is not all of who and what I understand myself to be. And much of it is subject to change.

Thank you for visiting and chatting on whatever basis you're comfortable with.

Listening to this as I type right now:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/living-deliberately-university-pennsylvania-tapestry-1.6988112

She's got some thoughts fit for sharing widely here:

https://twitter.com/GailSimone/status/1417860766661693443?s=20

Thanks to andrewducker for pointing out something someone else said:

https://andrewducker.tumblr.com/post/654036315813347328

These kinds of second- and third-hand referrals really are of value. Sometimes, more so than I expect. And I need this particular reminder.

I recently got called a "social thought leader". This, in the context of a push to get an O-Train line built under Bank Street:

https://clintondesveaux.medium.com/ottawans-favourable-to-bank-street-o-train-tunnel-a85925c68977

Because librarygeek rightly reminded me. Before I forget due to twenty other things much closer to home.

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2016/11/17/the-post-election-case-for-speaking-out-naomi-shulman

Botched the focus with my cleverphone camera yesterday...