Do I have to do everything around here?

Fortunately, no. No I do not. On every issue that I address, there’s someone else right here on FtB who also discusses (or has discussed) the same thing. But there are issues where I feel I have that little extra bit of expertise, or where I flatter myself that I have had a particularly good insight and start to feel, “Gosh, I really should write something on that.” My feeling of moral obligation has been expressed in many ways. A couple of my favorites are the Hebrew, “Tikkun olam,” and the West Wing quote from a fictional New Hampshire Catholic,

If fidelity to freedom and democracy is the code of our civic religion, then surely the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says we shall give our children better than we ourselves received.

I just can’t seem to leave poor enough alone. But there are times when issues come up,  as has happened in the last few days, that I feel I’ve already expressed myself well on a topic, but in a comment on some thread where it is more than likely to be lost to time. Writing on trans issues can be exhausting for me. Frankly, it’s not necessarily good for my mental health. But leaving the  world in a poor state is not only bad for the world, it’s also bad for me: as a relentlessly self-critical ethicist, shirking my ethical duties only results in self loathing, which ain’t any better for my mental health than writing on difficult topics. As a result, I’m going to start doing something I previously felt ws too vain to do more than once a year or so. I’m going to be resurrecting some of those comments that I consider worth time and attention even outside of their original contexts and recreate them as posts here on Pervert Justice. Note that I won’t be merely linking them, since we know that it’s easier to lose blog comments in a technology transition than blog posts. When I do this, I’ll be copying them whole, sometimes with bits of additional context surrounding them so that there are no gaps in understanding.

Bonus points to those who understand why I chose today to embark on this new policy (no peeking at this post’s URL), and on the off chance someone who reads me elsewhere has a suggestion for a topic on which I’ve expressed myself (or even a specific comment), you can put it below.