By JOHN  KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have had a pretty good run over the past week or so.

By that I mean this blog I have been writing full time since the summer of 2012. Here’s what I mean.

I came within a few hundred hits on my blog of setting a single-day record. My traffic was exploding over the course of several days. Then, just as suddenly as it skyrocketed, it settled back down to a more, um, normal pace.

My blog-traffic explosion filled me with some sense of hope that High Plains Blogger had reached a whole new audience out there in cyberworld. I don’t think that’s really the case.

I love writing this blog. It has given me a sense of purpose, although it surely isn’t my sole purpose for awakening each day. It’s just one of them. It allows me to vent. It gives me an avenue to share some thoughts with those who take the time to read them. I encourage folks to share them with their social media contacts/friends/loved ones/adversaries as well.

I don’t know who is doing it. I just want to take this opportunity to encourage everyone who looks at my spewage each day to share them with whomever you think might want to see it, or should see it.

Maybe I’ll get another surge like the one I have just enjoyed.

Thank you in advance.

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I get this question on occasion. It’s fairly rare that someone asks, but given that I get the query, I’ll speak to it briefly here.

The question: Why don’t you engage people who disagree with statements you make on your blog?

I generally dislike engaging in a give-and-take because people’s minds are made up. As is my own mind. I am not going to change anyone else’s view of a public policy issue and, I dare say, neither will anyone likely change my own mind.

That’s the short answer. A more expansive response seems appropriate.

I write this blog as my final statement on an issue. For instance, I have published an endless stream of posts that assert that Donald J. Trump is fundamentally unfit for the office he occupies. I have sought to say why I believe that throughout this man’s foray into political life. My mind is made up. I will not be persuaded to change my mind that Trump is somehow actually fit for the presidency. What would be the point of going back and forth with someone who believes Trump is the next “great president”?

It’s pretty much true on most issues. I tend to make up my mind before I post something on High Plains Blogger.

This does not mean I do not welcome critical comments. I most certainly do welcome them. Whether you respond directly to the blog’s site on Word Press, or on Facebook, or any other social medium that distributes these posts, I say, simply: Bring it!

I am highly unlikely, though, to argue with those critics. I am too old to waste my time trying to persuade someone that their views are all wrong and that mine are all right.

I just know it all to be true. That’s good enough for me. It’s also good enough for my critics.