Well said, Ben; it’s time to return to each of us doing his part.
(I bookmkarked this under CivicDuty).
I also hope you’ll continue to share some of your thoughts on politics as they come to you in the course of doing your part.

I’m considering teaching a course (at the local community college) on media literacy… teaching people to trace links from newspaper articles to the actual text of a bill even when they aren’t explicit in the web… teaching people to demand that journalists make those links.

I’ve got to agree with Claire on this one, Ben. I understand you wanting to focus on activites you know are valuable (teaching, research, technology) but I, too, think your political comments are of great value. It doesn’t have to be an either-or argument: you can teach, do research and build technologies while still developing and sharing your political viewpoints. Your technologies and how you choose to build them can be means of political involvement and represent perspectives on citizenship.

An honest question is, given that your opinion is this, what are you doing in case the worst does happen? How do you get out of the country with some cash, quickly?

I understand the desire to do something radical, emphatic after these sad news – but it would be too great of a loss to your current and potential blog readers if you stopped blogging about politics. Why not incorporate blogging on politics into your new goal of educating through technology and science? I, for one, feel more knowledgeable or educated after reading your blogs, and it’s the political blogs that interest me most. I can’t imagine that I would be the only one…