A long time ago the wolverines and bears bit and tore at our feet and hurt them a lot. It sucked. So we developed and important technology: Shoes. Shoes led to clothes, houses, agriculture. All of this lead to cities, ox carts, and eventually robots. Due to man's hunger for the need to develop we lost some things along the way. Our tiny ape minds can only relate to 150 people. After that? They're a damn foreigner, nothing like us that must be destroyed so our babies can rule the earth. It's a scientific fact. Due to our technology out growing our abilities it seems what I observe today is many people forgetting American ideals and something simple we used to do, long ago: talk. When we had just got done making shoes, we sat around the fire at night and said, "You know what'd go good with those shoes? Something to protect my balls and legs from getting cut." We looked at each other; some said it could never be done, but we talked it out and pants were made. Pants and shoes? That's half an outfit, now we're cooking with gas!
So if you take anything away from that story and this magazine I want it to be talk. Talk to people and see what happens. The exchange of ideas is a dieing art in this day and time. It seems a person can't talk to one another about politics without walking away thinking the other is an idiot. Media has trained us to have an opinion on everything and never ask why. When you stop clucking your thoughts wildly and start asking the other chickens why, you may be surprised what you hear and how you feel. You'll actually be holding something that is nearly dead: A conversation. So please, think of the pages of the magazine as a conversation. What are each of these pages saying to you? What are the authors trying to say? What can you take away from this?
The magazine is here to help give voices that wouldn't normally be heard a chance to sing. Artists who are putting in the effort and need an audience. A womb with a crowd to cheer their birth. If you've never made art before, make some and submit it. If you have some old short stories laying around you thought nobody would like, try me. The only rule of thumb is my personal taste and a sense of fairness. So, I beg of you, come, sit down by the fire, and talk for a while.
