Giving thanks

Something big happened earlier this month. We almost managed to forget about it. We got distracted — there was a little election going on in these parts. Maybe you heard.

But it was on Nov. 9, 2004 — in the wake of the previous presidential election — that Our Founder and various ethereal co-conspirators launched the blog you now read, and read not just here in Seattle or even just the United States, but in places on every continent around this wide and shrinking world.

The 'Vox was hoping to achieve a voice online, as part of a blogosphere that was, at that point, even more in its infancy than it is today. After Sen. John Kerry's defeat on Election Night 2004, it was clear the populist voice of the Internet hadn't fully developed. Collectively we hadn't yet generated the — what's the word? — audacity the medium demanded.

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That was then. In 2004 there were an estimated 4 million blogs. Now, four years later, that's grown to more than 130 million. The 'Vox likes to think that this blog's nerve, its guts and maybe even brains have gained a sophistication that's grown with its audience. We hope we're getting to be as smart as the blogosphere is big.

The 'Vox has tried to present something informative and insightful, irascible and maybe even audacious. We've ventured to be an honest expression of a liberal voice that's not quite so much in the wilderness as it was before. Back on Nov. 9, 2004. But as much as anything, we've tried to build something entertaining, a worthwhile pause in the rush toward the unknown, something to get one's head into for five minutes behind a cuppa and a smoke, a celebration of the written word that wants to make you laugh, maybe make you cry, and hopefully make you think. If the 'Vox does nothing else, that's enough.

So, be it resolved from Rain City, on this day of Thanksgiving, the 'Vox says: Muchas gracias. Spasibo, tovarich. Grazie. Arigato gozaimasu. Danke schoen. ευχαριστία. Obrigado. धन्यवाद. Danku. תודה. Merci beaucoup. All due props.

We won't say "couldn't have done it without you." We could have, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.