Bad News All Around

Gary Gygax is gone. Love him or hate him, he's responsible for pretty the shape of my entire world. I can't even imagine what kind of person I would be without D&D. Maybe a more productive one, but certainly someone who is more antisocial and alone.

Role-playing games have always been my way of making new friends in real life. Online, I can make friends with writers and SF enthusiasts, but the easiest way for me to make friends in a new town is to head to the local game shop or comic book store. There, no matter what, I will find others with a common interest. We may differ politically--we may differ in race, sex, and creed. But there will be one thing we agree upon: beholders are totally awesome. We speak a common language of rules and dice.

I still game, even if I don't play much D&D anymore. I certainly don't GM anymore because I found that GMing and writing comes from the same source of internal energy. I've got one game going and two more occasional casual games I might be joining in the future. It's still very much part of my core identity. Even though LJ is full of people acknowledging his passing, and I hate it when my friends list is full of the same thing over and over again, I think it would be wrong of me not to mention it. I didn't know the man. By all accounts, he was a bit of a jerk. But he started something that will long outlive him, that will change the lives of millions, and for that, I honor him.

If that news wasn't horrible enough--Bush is proposing killing the Reading is Fundamental program. Because killing "terrorists" in Iraq is more important than the education of our children. Because an educated populace is a liberal-voting populace. Boy does that piss off the Republicans, knowing that the farther someone goes in education, the more likely they are to turn out liberal. No wonder they're so anti-intellectual--intellectualism is the greatest threat to their policies. Luckily, we have a say in this matter.