To do that, we’ll be looking at the history of journalism, as well as present-day examples of breaches in media ethics and instances where misunderstandings between the public and the media arise. We’ll also be talking with experts in the field of media ethics about various issues from conflicts of interest to press freedom.

We’re expanding our operation this year to include a podcast and DIY educational materials. We’ve got a Patreon page set up here, where you can donate as much or as little as you like to keep us going. We explain where your donations go over there on the Patreon page, but basically, you’ll be helping us to bring on multiple writers to work on the blog and establish a general fund we can tap into for things like printing materials. We’re also expanding our social media presence in 2015 to encompass Twitter and Facebook, and we’ve got a secondary blog over here at Tumblr where we’ll be posting to daily.

This was kind of a short post, but one of our new year resolutions is to adhere to the old adage “quality over quantity” as much as humanly possible. I’m Trevor Hultner, main thing-doer at Missing Comma; you can follow me on Twitter at @missingcomma. We’re also incredibly lucky to have Juliana Perciavalle on the team for a second year as well. She’s about to start her final semester in college, but she’ll be dropping in throughout the year. Thanks for your support, and thanks for reading!

If there is one fact our collective history clearly reveals it is that large, centralized nation-states are the worlds most terrifying institutions. The 20th century alone is testament to this. The rise of fascism brought a premature end to nearly 100 million lives. The rise of the Bolsheviks tells a tale of an increasingly oppressive regime addicted to power. State capitalism and the rise of neo-liberal economics in the west are equally disastrous, responsible for a century of perpetual warfare.

Public intellectual Randolph Bourne once wrote, “war is the health of the state.” In the last century the machines of war reached frightening heights of power. The production of nuclear weapons can end all life as we know it. States may cause the greatest extinction in all of Earth’s history. This — the end of our species and countless others — is a real and looming threat.

The state is a system of power and domination. Such a monopoly serves to institutionalize the creeds of racism, sexism, class division, protectionism, biocentrism and more. This is true even in the most “democratic” of nations, including the United States. Such archism deserves abolition. The state is damned.

Yet, here in the fog, there too exists our beautiful struggle.

There is a great tradition in human history: Liberation. We long to be free. Human action continues to prove that with agency we can do great things for one another. We continue to labor, create, preserve and exercise goodwill.

Our inclined labor will produce a world where the children of humanity will live unbound by chains, where no fire or whip will meet their flesh. There will be no need to pledge allegiance to a nation, but all the reason to imagine a world of real and lasting peace. Not a world of dreamers, but a world of contracts, liberated economics and the splendor of the human condition. The peace of common interest, wildness and mutualism.

We must remember this. We must always remember those who risked and sometimes lost their lives and freedom for such an order. We must remember to love those who raised liberty’s hammer. Those who broke down the walls that caged us. We must remember so light will ever conquer darkness — so liberty will no longer be a simple flame, but a piercing, radiant torch.

We will be free. We will face the world without fear. We will stand together and howl into the face of those who wish to reign over us. We will ever challenge their rule. We will continue our embrace of liberty. Global movements have ignited. Join hands, unite the riot — coordinate and cultivate the free society. As we enter the new year, breath deep, let the winter air fill your lungs. Know that you are an animal, that you are alive and demand your freedom. Damn those who wish to deny you. Stare into the dark night and howl. Howl!