Interview with Blogger Dan Vojir

By The Pakistani Spectator • Jul 15th, 2008 • Category: Interviews • No Responses

Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1947, Dan Vojir bolstered his education early with, of all things, the piano: while he was attending a Catholic grammar school in Berwyn (a near suburb), he was also attending the American Conservatory of Music and was taught by the legendary Bruno Glade (a performer with Barbarolli in the London Symphony). He blogs here.

Dan loved music, art, geography and, especially, history. He graduated cum laude from Fenwick High School, a college preparatory school. He then studied at University of Illinois, Roosevelt University and Northern Illinois University where he graduated with a B.S.E. in Speech and Music education.

He taught for several years at the high school level in Rockford, Illinois, then Ottawa, Illinois. His school productions of musicals garnered praise from the arts media throughout the region.

After arriving in San Francisco in 1974, Dan embarked on a career in books, working for the local B. Dalton and eventually writing his own book and short stories. His love of books carried him into the world of publishing and he worked for college textbook firms as well as Bay Area publishers. He starting publicizing books and authors in the early ‘80s and went on to host his own syndicated radio show on Talk America Radio Networks. During the course of the show, Dan interviewed such luminaries as Steve Allen, William F. Buckley, Allen Ginsberg, Betty White, Judy Blume, Helen Gurley Brown, Patricia Nell Warren and Bishop John Shelby Spong.

Dan now lives in the Ingleside District of San Francisco with his companion theater director Mike Ward and their two cats, Katie Scarlett and Chloe Anastasia.

Would you please tell us something about you and your site?

I was born in an orphanage: St. Vincent’s Infant Asylum and Maternity Hospital in Chicago. I was given up for adoption from birth. My adoptive parents raised me in a strict Catholic and Czech environment (very eastern European and proud of it). I went to Catholic grade school and a very strict Catholic college prep school (Dominicans). Music and the arts were quite foreign to much of suburban Chicago, so I stood out as a child when I attended the American Conservatory of Music (piano). It was at that time I began to see and experience hypocrisy within the church and our community. They were both racist, homophobic, anti-Protestant and woefully ignorant of other ideologies in the world.
When I came to San Francisco 34 years ago, I experienced kindness and compassion I didn’t know existed. People accepted me unequivocally. Few people judged me to any degree. These are qualities I do not see in today’s Christian Right (or Islamic Right, for that matter). True compassion is totally unequivocal and nonjudgmental. I decided to write a book about Christianity and its faults. The research for the book led to my blog. Knowing that today’s Christianity goes hand-in-hand with politics, I also focus on Right-wing politics.

Do you feel that you continue to grow in your writing the longer you write? Why is that important to you?

I’ve been around books and publishing for a long time and I’ve met hundreds of authors (good and not-so-good). Writers are always growing with their writing. If the growth stopped, the writing would become so stagnant that not even the writer would read it. It’s important for an author to get his/her ideas across to as many people they can.

I’m wondering what some of your memorable experiences are with blogging?
I’ve been blogging for a little over a year. So far, my most memorable experience was with a former Fundamentalist and a commenter who called himself “Anonymous”. The ex-Fundamentalist (I call them Christofascists, so please don’t be offended if I do) was so in agreement with things said in my blog, while “Anonymous” did nothing but rage at my negative portrayal of George Bush. It got quite heated and then “Anonymous” entered the ex-Fundamentalist’s blog and started railing at her for no reason at all. She joked about it (“I think I have your ‘Anonymous’). Soon the comments stopped. “Anonymous” was not pleased with our answers.

What do you do in order to keep up your communication with other bloggers?
I read them, leave a comment and always include my web address to let them know that I am interested in more than just their current post.

What do you think is the most exciting or most innovative use of technology in politics right now?

It’s not blogging. Blogging is too chaotic. There are so many out there that it takes quite some time to pick out the ones you want to read on a daily, or even occasional basis. If politicians actually wrote their own blogs and were able to read the comments, then blogging would be a fantastic political tool.

Do you think that these new technologies are effective in making people more responsive?

Blogging helps make people more responsive because, let’s face it, people love to see their ideas on the screen and love to see what people think of them. It can be a dialogue, but a good dialogue needs to have people on an equal level before they start the dialogue and frequently that’s not the case. Ignorance in blogging (spelling, grammar, structure) is irritating and pegs a person as ignorant in everything else. If you want to be a good blogger, I feel, you should be a decent write who can bring across ideas of current affairs easily and effectively.

What do you think sets Your site apart from others?
My method for posting: each day, I research what happened on that day in history: things interesting, horrible, funny, etc. I place those events in a sidebar. Then I look at the news: what is happening in politics or religion that corresponds to what happened in history. The July 14^th post is a good example: I was amazed at how much I got out of that date – too much, in fact. I have to focus, or I have to do second and third posts.

If you could choose one characteristic you have that brought you success in life, what would it be?

A sense that you’re only as good as your last achievement. To rest on one’s laurels is (to me) a sin.

What was the happiest and gloomiest moment of your life?
Happiest: when a publisher accepted my autobiography for publication (that was 25 years ago!). Gloomiest: when I volunteered for the AIDS Emergency Fund in the 1990s, I had to help thousands of people who were sick and dying. I was there for 6 years (3 years on the Board of Directors). At the same time, however, I had an epiphany in the fact that I saw thousands, knew of hundreds of thousands, of people who were giving their time, their money, their very lives to helping people whom they did not know. That’s when I realized that those people were more Christian than all the Falwells and Robertsons who, in fact, were sending them to the Emergency Fund through their terrible rhetoric. AIDS was “discovered” in 1981. By the time, the first “faith-based” AIDS agency outside of San Francisco had come along, over 65,000 people had died.

If you could pick a travel destination, anywhere in the world, with no worries about how it’s paid for - what would your top 3 choices be?
#1. Prague – I’ve been there twice and think it is the most beautiful city in the world. I love to learn about Czech history and Prague is untouchable in the arts.

#2. Paris – I’ve never been there, but with no worries about how to pay for the trip, I’m sure I would be able to luxuriate in its many museums, architecture and people.

#3. Calcutta – You are looking puzzled at this and I can apperciate your bewilderment. I truly believe that we all should have balance in our lives. Seeing the poorest of the poor and how they manage to survive is a way of finding that balance.

What is your favorite book and why?

I am a Gone With The Wind collector and I can tell you that there are so very many thingsw this novel touches upon within the human emotions. My favorite character, besides Scarlett is Melanie. A movie critic once answered the question as to why so many people viewing the film always cry upon her death: “Melanie represents pure, unequivocal goodness. And when she dies, goodness dies with her.”

What’s the first thing you notice about a person (whether you know them or not)

That’s tough question because I try NOT to notice anything in particular that might cloud my judgment. However, that said, I notice their eyes, then their clothes. Not whether or not they are fashionable, but whether or not they are appropriate for what is going on around them.

Is there anyone from your past that once told you couldn’t write?
Once, when I was writing my book, my publisher told me it needed more editing. I was crushed. The book, however, went through without subsequent edits. One comment from a reviewer: “I liked the fact that it wasn’t over-edited.”
How can bloggers can benefit from blogs financially?

There is the obvious way, by selling ad space. Remember, however, small blogs with a limited readership will be turned down by the usual (Google, etc.)

The certain way is to be writing/working on something else and use your blog to promote it.

Is it true that who has a successful blog has an awful lot of time on their hands?

If you mean it takes a lot of time to put together a successful blog, yes. You’re walking a fine line between what you want to write and what you think the public wants to read (or should read). A successful blog (to me) is constantly being fed new information ands sorting it out. I posed the question as to how much time I should devote to a blog and the answer (among Google-type distributors) was “blog EVERY DAY.” If you subscribe to StatCounter, you will be able to see the drop in readership the next day if you don’t feed them something.

What role can bloggers of the world play to make this world more friendlier and less hostile?

To do that the bloggers themselves have to be friendlier and less hostile. I subscribe to several feeds not because I like what I read, but I have to know what the other side is thinking. I subscribe to TownHall Daily to view some of the comments of the right wing. I subscribe to daily updates from Family Research Council. They vilify people with the worst rhetoric I have ever seen! Their communications are always against something – anything!

Who are your top five favourite bloggers?

First and foremost, there is Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic (from the magazine). He’s amazingly astute on most issues, some of which I do not agree with, but he’s honest about that and I respect him for it. Sullivan, however, was and is a major writer besides blogging. That is, I think, the key to his success.

There is a blogger who has become a dear friend – her blog goes by the name of http://goprairie.blogspot.com she is writing just to write out thought and ideas. She is a professional landscape architect focusing on indigenous plants and flowers of the prairie. She is also a good photographer. Her prose reads like poetry sometimes and a short look at her writing and pictures can calm just about any frantic day.

Besides those two I like the practical approach of The Young Turks (who also do a podcast) Cenk Uyger is the host and he loves to poke holes in people’s logic.

I also read Ed Babinski when I can. Works on evolution are always fascinating because they are so passionate.

Although it isn’t a blog, I get updates from archeologist James Tabor. His research in Isreal is making a lot of Religious Fundamentalists (actually, “inerrantists”) very, very nervous. They hate him – a lot.

Is there one observation or column or post that has gotten the most powerful reaction from people?

Mine or someone else’s column? I am prone to somewhat edgy headlines – like the one on George Bush and big oil: “Are You Up for Another Screwing – At The Pump?” However, it’s important that the body of the post name enough newsworthy people and events. One post I did was for Easter Sunday. Besides headlining it with the usual Happy Easter! I had a photo of two chocolate rabbits, one with its behind chewed off and the other with his ears gone. The first rabbit says “My ass hurts!” the other one says “What?” The stats for the post doubled. Go figure.
As far as the most powerful reaction from an article or post, there are too many to think of, but if it’s real news, the “Sixty Minutes” piece on Abu Graib rocked the world! Sad, but horrific things being done to people catches more attention than anything.

What is your perception about Pakistan and its people?
I recently lived with a Pakistani family in our apartment complex. I started an after school program for the kids because the area out side of our building was so very dangerous (I am proud to say that I won a Jefferson Award for it). I learned a lot about Pakistan just by learning from the family of two boys and two girls. Although three of the four children had been born in the U.S., the family had a very hard time adjusting to life in the states. The older boy was very good (about 13) but the younger boy (8) was having trouble reading in school: he did not have the knowledge or could not reference the thing being talked about in school. He was considered a hellion in the apartment building until I took the parents aside and begged them to talk to his teachers. They complied and he got the additional help he needed. The older girl (about 15) was failing in almost every subject even though she had taken honors in them two years before. When I asked why, all she could say was “I don’t know” and even joked about it a little. The family asked me to come to their apartment for special sessions with three of the kids. It was then that I realized how much their holding on to their culture was important on the one hand, but hurting them on the other hand. The two girls were never ever allowed to play in the courtyard with the other children. They could look from their window. I am positive the children were shunned in school because they were devout Muslims.
I saw the family as being a bit too insular and not assimilating themselves as well as they could be. I think of them often. I hear that they wish I was back with them.

Pakistan is a country steeped in a culture westerners know nothing about. The problems we face now in the Middle East were brought about by the fact that George Bush knew nothing about the region and its peoples. To him, all he had to do was spout “Freedom!” “Democracy!” and everyone would be happy. There have been times I honestly though that when Bush got off Airforce One, he didn’t have a clue as to where he was or who the people were. Example: when he addressed Pakistan’s people as “Arabs”. The United States needs (desperately) a diplomat, not a dimwit. People in America cannot perceive of factional violence – they simply do not understand the intricacies of regions, religions, and ideologies. They don’t try to understand. They are also very poor when it comes to knowing history. They know a little about their own Civil War but absolutely nothing about Sunni vs. Shiite.

Make no mistake about it: there are certain “religious” factions in our country that want things to stay the same. They promote ignorance in a very subtle but no less terrible way. When a popular television preacher says to his “flock” of three million people that America was founded to destroy Islam, some people believe it.

And others will go to war for it.