A New Year/Decade Reflection- Taken from Jan. 3rd, “Soul of Seattle” New Year Show

*NOTE*  I pasted this from my show script, which was written in “broadcast” style, hence the “all caps” type…

THIS IS THE FIRST “SOUL OF SEATTLE” COMMENTARY IN A VERY LONG TIME.  ACTUALLY, BY MY CALCULATIONS I HAVEN’T DONE A COMMENTARY SINCE THE SUMMER; BUT AS THE OLD PHRASE GOES THERE’S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT AND ISN’T THAT THE TRUTH ON SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS, ESPECIALLY NOW?

LIKE MANY OF US, I TOOK TIME OUT TO REFLECT ON THE PASSING OF THE OLD YEAR -2009- AND THE DAWNING OF 2010… THE SECOND DECADE IN THE 21^ST CENTURY IN THIS STILL VERY NEW MILLENNIUM. AND, I WONDER EXACTLY WHERE IS IT WE – AS IN THE HUMAN RACE AND PLANET EARTH… WHERE EXACTLY ARE WE HEADED.  I KNOW IT SOUNDS ESOTERIC, BUT, PLEASE BEAR WITH ME.

AS THEY SAY, PAST IS PROLOGUE AND ALTHOUGH I’M AN INCURABLE OPTIMIST, AND A ROMANTIC FOR THAT MATTER, I’M HAPPY AS HELL TO SAY GOODBYE TO ESPECIALLY THIS PAST DECADE – WHICH FOR ME BEGAN IN A RATHER FOREBODING WAY.

 I WAS PART OF A BEEFED UP GUARD DETAIL AT EAGLE BASE IN TUZLA, BOSNIA AT THE TIME.

YOU REMEMBER THE MEDIA-WHIPPED Y-2-K HYSTERIA IN 1999?  WELL, AS A RESERVIST CALLED UP FOR A TOUR IN BOSNIA, I WAS NOT ONLY CONCEREND ABOUT THAT, BECAUSE THE ARMY AND MEDIA SAID WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED, BUT WE WERE ALSO WORRIED ABOUT THE THREATS AGAINST OUR BASE.  THESE WERE NEBULOUS THREATS THAT “INTELLIGENCE,” AND I USE THAT WORD IN QUOTES FOR OBVIOUS REASONS, RECEIVED FROM THE LIKES OF SERBIAN AND MUSLIM EXTREMISTS. WELL, EXCEPT FOR SOME POT SHOTS TAKEN AT THE PERIMETER FROM A RELATIVELY COMFORTABLE DISTANCE, THOSE THREATS DIDN’T MATERIALZE AND THE WORLD WAS NOT DESTROYED BY A MASSIVE COMPUTER MELTDOWN WHEN THE ATOMIC CLOCK STRUCK 2000! 

BUT, THAT DIDN’T STOP US FROM GRADUALLY DESCENDING INTO A LONG-DARK TUNNEL OF NIGHTMARISH PROPORTIONS; NIGHTMARISH FOR THOSE OF US WHO REALLY CARE ABOUT THE WORLD, AS WELL AS OUR COMMUNITIES, AND OUR NATION.

2000 SAW THE ELECTION, UH-UM, ACTUALLY THE APPOINTMENT OF GEORGE W. BUSH… OUR VERY OWN NERO IF AMERICA COULD BE CALLED A MODERN DAY ROMAN EMPIRE… AND METAPHORICALLY HE SEEMED TO BE OBSESSED WITH PLAYING HIS FIDDLE, WHILE USING THE CALAMITY OF 9-11 AS HIS MUSE, USHERING IN A PERIOD OF FEAR, LOATHING, GREED AND WAR – WAR WITHOUT END, AS IT SEEMS NOW.

  AND, INSATIABLE GREED AND LUST FOR LUXURY AND FAME THAT NEARLY SENT OUR WORLD ECONOMY CRASHING INTO A DEEP INESCAPABLE DEPRESSION. AS IT TURNS OUT IT’S A DEEP RECESSION… BUT FOR MANY OF US WHAT’S  THE DAMN DIFFERENCE.

FOR ME, THAT TURN OF THE CENTURY TOUR IN THE BALKANS WAS JUST A WARM UP.  IT WAS PRE-SEASON IF YOU WILL AS I EVENTIALLY FOUND MYSELF, ALWAYS THE GOOD SOLDIER, BACK IN THE GAME.  THIS TIME THE BIG GAME – BACK FOR A WHOLE LOT MORE – MORE WAR, MORE FEAR, MORE UNCERTAINTY FOR ALL OF US… IN WHAT SEEMED TO BE AN INCREASINGLY WEIRDER AND WEIRDER TIME.

AND THEN LAST YEAR WE SAW A GLIMMER OF HOPE, IN THE GUISE OF A YOUNG, DYNAMIC, PRESIDENT CUT FROM A FAR DIFFERENT CLOTH OF THE LIKES AMERICA HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE.  A BLACK MAN, THOUGH MANY PEOPLE SEEM TO CONVENIENTLY IGNORE HIS BI-RACIAL CAUCASION-AFRICAN GENETIC MAKEUP.  A LEADER, THOUGH, WITH A FOREIGN NAME – A MAN COLORED SEVERAL SHADES DARKER THAN THE ERSTWHILE PRESIDENTIAL ARCHETYPE.

BUT, HE SEEMED TO SPEAK SENSE IN BOLD AND STARK WAYS – IN A MANNER THAT SEEMED TO BE SORELY MISSING FROM THE NATIONAL POLITICAL DISCOURSE DURING THE BUSH YEARS.

AND, WE LISTENED.  AND, THEN WE HOPED SOME MORE. 

I WAS BESIDE MYSELF, AND RATHER NAIVELY IN SOME WAYS AT THAT… AS I, AND WE, SOON DISCOVERED DESPITE THIS CHANGE AT THE TOP WE, AND YES, OBAMA, STILL FACED THE SAME OLD PROBLEMS EXACERBATED EXPONENTIALLY BY THE POLICIES OF THE PAST AND THE ARROGANCE OF THE IGNORANCE OF THOSE WHO STILL SEE THE WORLD IN TERMS OF BLACK AND WHITE, US AND THEM, BIGGER IS BETTER, OIL IS GOOD, HAVE AND HAVE NOT, AS IN WE HAVE IT AND WE WANT IT ALL AND WE’RE RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WRONG. 

AND, EVEN MORE DISTURBINGLY, IT’S THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE RISEN UP CLAIMING EVERYONE ELSE IS SENDING THIS COUNTRY TO HELL… SAY NOTHING OF THE WORLD.

IT IS FOR THESE PEOPLE WHOM SARAH PALIN, FOR ONE, IS A DEMIGOD.  SHE, THE MASTER OF DEMAGOGUERY, THE CUNNING OPPORTUNIST, WHO SEES MORE WISDOM IN CHASING THE INCREASINGLY NOT SO ALMIGHTY DOLLAR WHEN COMPARED TO THE EURO THESES DAYS, THAN EDUCATING HERSELF AND HER FLOCK ON THE TRUE NATURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS INEXPLICABLE RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR INDUSTRIALIZED SOCIETY’S DOOMED LOVE AFFAIR WITH FOSSIL FUELS AND NON-RENEWABLE ENERGY.  BUT, WHAT DOES SHE CARE SINCE IN HER RELIGOUSNESS, AND THE EVIDENCE WE’VE SEEN OF IT, SHE AND A DISTURBINGLY LARGE PERCENTAGE OF OTHERS IN AMERICA SEEM CONVINCED THE WORLD’S APOCOLYPTIC EXPIRATION DATE IS COMING UP PRETTY SOON.   SO,WHY PANIC THEY MIGHT SAY?  JUST SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE SPOILS, EVEN THOUGH FROM WHAT I REMEMBER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT JESUS PREACHED A FAR DIFFERENT SERMON.

 SO, IT IS REALLY UP TO US… THOSE OF US WHO REALLY CARE AND WHO ARE CONTEMPLATIVE IN OUR QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING IN OUR WORLD’S INCREASINGLY COMPLICATED TIMES; TO BE OUR BROTHER AND SISTER’S KEEPER NO MATTER HOW IGNORANT OR DIFFICULT THEY MAY BE… TO BE THE STEWARDS OF OUR ENVIRONMENT, AS WE ARE AS MUCH PART OF THE EARTH AS THE EARTH IS PART OF US… TO BE THE CARETAKER OF OUR NEIGHBORS ON THIS PLANET – AS IN ITS DISTURBINGLY DECREASING FLORA AND FUANA. 

AS THOM HARTMANN SO ELOQUENTLY POINTS OUT IN HIS RECENT BOOK – “THRESHOLD,” WE ARE QUICKLY RUNNING OUT OF TIME.

SO, IN THIS NEW YEAR I RESOLVE MYSELF TO PRACTICE MORE COMMUNITY, AND ECO,  AND SMALL BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY. 

I RESOLVE TO BE MORE KIND AND LOVING… TO REACH OUT MY HAND AND HELP OTHERS NO MATTER HOW DIFFICULT AND UNCOMFORTABLE IT MIGHT BE. 

I HOPE TO JOIN HANDS WITH YOU IN THIS REGARD, BECAUSE TOGETHER WE CAN SHOW THIS COUNTRY AND THE WORLD THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO LITTLE…

UNTIL IT BECOMES – GOD FORBID – TOO LATE.

Thanks for..?

Wow!  I just can’t fathom that it’s Thanksgiving already.

 Is it just me feeling the slow march of time, as in a lot of years lived on this earth creeping up on me faster and faster – putting the calender in higher and higher gear?   Whatever it is, or isn’t, it’s still  Thanksgiving.  For many of us it’s just “turkey day.”  You know, time to hang out with the family and maybe, if we’re able or even lucky at this point, gorge ourselves on a lot of food and watch football or enjoy other holiday traditions.

Sadly, for an increasing number of us who might be displaced, dispossessed, or homeless, it’s a rather depressing day.  I spent a lot of Thanksgivings away from my family because of military obligations, and later, television news schedules in the various markets I worked.  Since I was single and wasn’t working anywhere near my hometown, I always volunteered to work Thanksgiving or Christmas, or both.  While in the military, if I was deployed or away from home, I always volunteered to visit an orphanage. Lord knows in too many of those countries there were enough orphanages to visit every single holiday.

In the news biz it was far different, as you’d expect.  There was always the “typical” thanksgiving day story – the  food banks and shelters, or something related to it. Hell it got to the point where reporting those stories became disturbingly similar to painting by numbers. “Bam,” show up, get three or four soundbites; write the narrative , do your live shot(s) and go home.   But, one particular thanksgiving in Indianapolis  in 2000 really left me teary eyed.

My photographer that day, Steve, and I felt ambitious. We decided to go out early that morning. In the military we’d call it “o-dark early,” like around 4:30 am.  It was a cold day. Colder than usual, even for near-winter Indiana as a fierce wind blew across the Indiana plains through Indianapolis carrying a bone chilling 28 degree mercury reading with it.  Steve and I braved our way into one of the, not too easily concealed, homeless camps on the edge of downtown.

As you’d expect we were met with a mixture of jeers, hostility, curiosity and, surprisingly – affability, when we told everyone we’re going to ensure they would all eat some good turkey-day chow. It was a promise we intended to keep as we convinced the station to significantly up its allotment of humble, as in institutionally-catered, thanksgiving meals they bring in for the holiday staff so we’d have at least 25 extra servings for these homeless folks.  And, that was a mildly conservative estimate.

But, we wanted to realistically, without resorting to the typical local news reporting  bombastic hyperbole, chronicle Thanksgiving on the cold, unforgiving streets.  We really, sincerely, aimed to provide a humbling juxtaposition for the majority of our comfortably ensconced viewers enjoying the voluminous bounties of our land.  Bounty, that is, if you aren’t homeless and make a salary considerably above the poverty line.

Looking back on it, it was kind of easy for us to hang there and form an easy rapport with the homeless rank and file.  Steve and I are both quite used to roughing it.  I had recently re-deployed from an active reserve tour in Bosnia where I had to deal with my fair share of mass grave discoveries – the gruesome aftermath of war gone completely, unabashedly, mad.  For his part, Steve was one of the station’s hardiest and most danger seeking videographers.  He was the guy always out  chasing tornados, of which there are many in Indiana.  He mostly worked solo, because he had this crazy tendency to get really, many would say, sickeningly close to them.  He  invariably scared the crap out of a lot of unsuspecting rookie reporters who didn’t know what exactly they were in for.

I know first hand, because my first month there that unsuspecting rookie reporter was me.  And, man, let me tell you, you haven’t lived until a tree hurtles across your windshield while the vehicle is rolling back and forth like a ship on an ocean with the angriest, darkest, fiercest-looking funnel cloud flirting disastrously close with your butt.  It was that moment, though, Steve and I measured each other and bonded in a way Soldiers, or a news crew knee-deep in life threatening danger, often, and quite easily do.

So, hanging with some homeless folks, even those who invariably have significant mental health issues, was really no big deal.  But, we approached our work with an altruistic heart and a sincere journalistic desire to inform; telling the story of those who really are powerless to advocate on their own behalf.  This, even though we were vividly aware of the fine line we were walking.  It’s easy to accuse journalists – especially television journalists of crass exploitation. Hell, that’s what a lot of  TV reporting is based on after all.

In short, we produced a tear jerker of a piece. Our goal was to make our viewers stop and  take pause. At the very least, we wanted them to take inventory of not just their lives, situations and blessings as well as those of the people orbiting around their personal circles, but of the general state of society.  We wanted them to consciously ponder, while they were stuffing bite after bite down their throats, how in the greatest, so-called wealthiest country on earth, hundreds of thousands of other human beings, regardless of the circumstances that made them homeless – and hungry, could live like that.  Live in that sad and dangerous state of deprivation, on a holiday that not just represented great bounty, but unashamedly celebrated it.

I know what it’s like to be that way… Not just for the six or seven hours we spent “living homeless” that cold morning.  You see, I was homeless once in my life . I was a naively obstinate 17-year old punk kid who ran away from home in my senior year of high school.  I was fed up and disillusioned.  I was sick of the football and track coaches. Sick of my school. Sick of my teachers and sick of the students, 98 percent of them white South Jersey hicks, who nick-named my bohemian mixed-race ass “hippie nigger.”  And, above all I was sick of my mom and dad who, in my adolescent hormone-jet fueled psyche, had the audacity to move ME from my cool, familiar, environs in THE CITY to hick-ass pine tree laden South Jersey, as in Ocean County, New Jersey.  And, yes, it wasn’t far from the coast and beaches which many people realize are kind of cool for the East Coast.  But, to me I might as well had been moved down south – like Dixie South.  Well, eventually my parents got sick of  South Jersey too, since they moved to Seattle afterward. But, it wasn’t  soon enough for me.

After what was probably my upteenth tantrum, and whining about being too far from New York, my dad uttered those now immortal words, “If you don’t like it, then go!”  So, I did, actually.  That was two weeks before Thanksgiving.  But, I remember that  Thanksgiving all too well.  Homeless, scrounging for food and shelter on the cold hard streets.  Damn!  An education for sure. One you can’t buy, but one simply you have to live.  

 It didn’t stop there, though. I spent Christmas on the run too, but wound up with a friend I met who took me home for a week. He told his parents I was a college student from California who couldn’t afford to go back for Christmas break. They eventually got suspicious when, despite their incessant worrying and prodding, I refused to call my parents for Christmas.  They wound up calling the police and I was soon on my way back home to South Jersey.

That experience obviously stayed with me and helped shape the person I eventually grew into, for good and for worse.

So, as I sit here and reflect on my bounties this Thanksgiving, I realize I have so much to be thankful for.  I have my health and I survived a substantial military career, including several rough deployments and a war, in one piece.  My beautiful daughter married a very cool guy.  My parents, though with my dad in questionable, if not slowly failing, health are still here on this earth.  I have three great sisters and two wonderful nephews who are becoming men in their own right.

My Soldiers, in the unit I was placed in charge of before I left the Army, successfully completed a long tour attached to Special Forces Groups in Afghanistan. This, despite some harrowing incidents and firefights. They’re home and moving on with their lives, goals and careers.

I have a radio show and I continue to help people, and journalistically advocate for those who aren’t able to do so easily on their own.

So, here’s to you!  Happy Thanksgiving. May you be thankful for what’s really important to you.  And, may you share your bounty, whatever it may be, with the world around you.

Margaret “SOl”

Man, I had an invigorating, and enthralling, reminder of why I should get out of my funk and take better care of this blog – as in write something of some value or interest at least more often than has been the case as of late.

Last night… as in Friday night, November 20th, I ventured over to Bellevue for an interesting evening at the very cool BAM (Bellevue Arts Museum).  It was another, not too frequent, installment of their popular “Finally Friday” socials.  It’s where the museum takes aim at the youth demographic; as in it features a hipster DJ, “East Side scenesters,” vino and hors d’oeuvres.  And, yes for my East Side friends and readers I use that aforementioned quotes-marked phrase very much tongue in cheek.

I was there at the invitation of a wonderful friend, Donna, whom I dated earlier this year.  But, we’ve since settled in a nice, though somewhat inconsistent, friendship. Inconsistent, she would say, because of  my tendency to slip away into a shell, or man cave, and virtually disappear emotionally.  Well, that’s what she laid on me last night, at least.  

She’s the museum’s marketing graphic artist, and she’s very good.  She’s a very cool and nurturing soul, I should add.  She was also one of my early supporters; as in my radio work and commentary.  And, to tell you the truth, she was a great sounding board who also provided me with some wonderful, episodic, inspiration, although I’ve never told her.  Never told her that is until now perhaps, although indirectly, when she reads this post.

I met a friend of hers last night –  Margaret.  Simply put, Margaret is a firebrand. You ever met someone who seems to have a microcosm of the sun burning within their core?  Where their energy is so powerful they can probably, kinetically, move objects, or bend spoons or some crazy thing?  That’s Margaret.  

We shook hands and I felt it… Bam!  Shook me up, momentarily. But, I rebounded in that cool composed, “ain’t nothin’ rockin’ my, cool as f*@k , steady as she goes world,” sort of way.  Those who know me  will recognize that  particular demeanor.  The one that’s led more than one person, women especially, to say “cold bastard.”   And in some cases, “fucking bastard.”

 But, this didn’t deter Margaret “Sol.”  No, not one bit .  She immediately said – “Jacques!  Hey man, I’m originally from New York, moved to Jersey, went in the military, wound up in Seattle too!  Just like you!”   And she said it in what seemed like two seconds tightly grasping my hand in a “gotcha” handshake, eyes burning through my soul, with the force of a cyclone.  Again, Bam!   Rocked me back on my heels.  Rocked my unsuspecting ass right out of that super-stone cold demeanor.  She had me. In familiar, and true, military fashion she quickly sized me up and went for the vulnerable spot. And, again in military form, she went for the seemingly well concealed vulnerability most people, or unit defensive positions, feel is a strength.  But that’s another story, or lesson. 

Margaret, man!  She told me how she’s gotten into my blog and likes how, and what, I write.  She said it pained her to read what I scribed after my daughter got married.  Actually, Donna, said the same thing.  You have to go back and read it to see exactly what we’re referring too.  

And, that, and the subsequent conversation I had with Donna, really made me think. Or more precisely – re-think that position.  

Truth is, and I did pledge to live “out loud” with this blog, I once again retreated into the abyss of depressive despair over the last several weeks.  Problem is I hide it very well. And, that’s a little scary in various ways. Many, if not most, of the people in your life, even good acquaintances, will try to help you out of a funk if they recognize it.  But, if you’ve become an expert in hiding it, like me perhaps, how would they ever know?

Margaret knew.  She instinctively, I believe, knew.  Turns out, in our little, fairly brief, encounter we’ve possibly discovered we’re what I call “cosmic siblings,” or, you know,  something like soul mates without the romantic connection.  But, it’s like you recognize each other and realize you have gifts, or powers, that can really come to your “siblings” aid.  Especially in a crisis.  

I promised her I would write something on my blog today.  I kind of think she knows I would write what I’m writing about her.

Thanks, Margaret “Sol.”  Thanks for the soul defibrillation.  I needed the “shock.”  It’s all simpatico, now.

Yeah, Margaret and I probably are soul siblings.  People, who don’t much about me, what I’ve been through, how I grew up, and all that stuff, have often remarked how I seem to “have it made.”  Or, “you’ve had a great life.”   It seems they tell her the same thing, but we both know better.

 I look forward to developing a nice friendship with Margaret.  Especially, as she, well Donna, too, in differing ways, helped me see “the light”  I seemed to have turned away from over the last couple of months.

And, I’m diggin’ it!

Oh, do check out the BAM.  The John Buck and Robert Sperry exhibitions are worth the trip alone!

…And the band played on.

It’s been nearly two weeks since President Obama was named the Noble Peace Prize recipient for this year, much to nearly everyone’s surprise.  And, I use that word with several contexts in mind.  First of all, I believe the Nobel committee makes a point to “surprise” with its, particularly speaking, Peace Prize. I mean think about it… But, this is the first time many on both sides of the Atlantic, and certainly both sides of America’s political devide, expressed shock at the selection.  I venture to say Obama himself was shocked at the announcement.  It certainly seemed that way when he came out of the White House to address it that morning.  

Now nearly every pundit, intelligent and otherwise, has weighed in on this topic since then and there really isn’t anything of substantive value for me to add at this juncture.  It’s a very subjective award, and the Nobel committee seemed to have definitely been hell bent on making a big point, especially to those of here in what too many of us consider to be the center of the known universe – the good ole USA.

But, the reality of the atmosphere surrounding their decision is Barack Obama, as a leader, as a symbol for an America that seems, with having elected him, is now willing to truly “walk its talk,”  in regards to practicing, without caveat, true equal opportunity.  And, this of course has those terribly mean-spirited right wing conservatives even more hotter than hell, as in mad, than they were before. 

“I didn’t realize the Nobel Committee had an affirmative action quota,” said one relative unknown right wing talker who certainly doesn’t think twice about succumbing to cheap hyperbole, as is often the case with many of them these days.  And, that brand of low-brow commentary pretty much sums up the gist of the right wingers’ contemptuousness to the president’s Nobel Prize win. 

These people are, of course, of the same ilk that partied like it was 1999 when Chicago lost out on its Olympic Bid, and openly admit they want America to fail under its present “Socialist” (their words not mine) political leadership.  No, many of them go even further – they want Obama to fail, even if it means America fails.  But what gets me is how, in their ostrich-like self blindness they refuse to acknowledge how America has failed, spectacularly so, over this past decade. 

How many more people are out of work?  How many more jobs have we lost? How many more people were thrust out of their homes as a result of the mortgage meltdown? How many more people are dying because they don’t have health insurance?  How many more people are living in poverty? How many are just scraping by as they’re just a slim margin above the “official” poverty line?  How many more people were killed, or horribly maimed, in our two wars?  How many more state and municipal governments are on the verge of bankruptcy because of sudden deficits caused by tax bases decreasing more rapidly than anyone had reasonably forecast?  And it goes on, and regretfully on.  But the key word here is “more,”  even with that incomplete litany of negative socio-economic indicators.   

America is failing.  That’s right, I said failing. As self serving as this may sound, it truly hurts me to say that.  But, the base reality is our nation is failing us – our citizenry, our future, and the promise we have once shown our children, and the world.  And we must, in all reality, place the blame squarely at the feet of of the Bush Administration.  I know, I know… I sound like another “liberal Bush basher.” But, I’m not a classic “liberal.”  I’m a Progressive. And, I’m someone who gave “W” a huge benefit of the doubt for probably much longer than I should have.  I even agreed to become a Soldier again at the sacrifice of what was a comfortable civilian life and career; and boy did I ever learn a lot of searingly painful lessons.  But, please take a minute or so to reflect back on 1999… Was it really as “bad,” as it seems today, despite the plethora of issues that faced us as a country?  I know it’s all relative, but it seemed we’ve fallen through the ceiling of a fairly tall building only to land on the bottom floor dazed and somewhat battered trying to get it all together as we understand our new set of circumstances and how we’re going to move forward with what is obviously a new model.  As I write this, the Dow’s over the 10,000 mark and there’s talk from our news “talking heads” the deep recession’s over.  Investors are feeling good again, and they all say it’s a bright moment for the economy and we can look forward to a period of job creation.  But, all I can see “10,000″ meaning to the average American is, and this is how it was for most of us this decade meaning the higher Dow soars more jobs are indeed created – in China, India, and Dubai, and God knows where else; but certainly not here.  Our manufacturing base has been decimated, if not outright eliminated, in large swaths of the upper Midwest and NorthEast.  Detroit and it’s immediate environs are starting to resemble an uncomfortably realistic “Escape From New York” old movie scenario.

Barack Obama isn’t perfect and his Nobel Prize selection certainly wasn’t a “perfect” pick by the committee, but we’re living in far from perfect circumstances, and we ll know it.  So does the world.  But, as imperfect as “we” are, meaning the USA, we’re still a shining beacon of hope which the rest of the world draws a great deal of inspiration from.  President Obama and his administration, though far from ideologically perfect in the Democratic Party sense, is diametrically positioned to the Bush Administration – its policies, ideology and world view.  Obama has shown the world an outstretched hand. and a willingness to sit and listen contemplatively and actively, and to communicate honestly and forthrightly with the understanding that diplomacy is indeed an art that requires intelligence and compassion, as well empathy and a willingness to be flexible, as well as maintain a position of  steely strength. 

As for the right wing… Well, it’s the same old, tired, one chord song the geezer band plays over and over despite the fact everyone’s absolutely sick of it.  Even, as it appears more and more “true” Republicans are wanting a dramatic change of tune.  We partied like it was 1999 once upon a time, but for many, if not most, of us here in 2009  we can’t afford to party.  Time’s run out and it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work, because even if our nation’s failing us we can no longer afford to fail it – period!

It’s been a long time…

Yes, it has been awhile since I posted anything on my little blog.  Well, let’s see… Not to sound cliche, but a lot has happened over the past month.  The Radio Show “Soul of Seattle” is undergoing a makeover and we’re still in the final stages of renegotiations with AM 1090 KPTK.  Maybe you’ve noticed we’ve been off the air for a month.

It’s nothing serious. We’re aiming for a better time slot, which will deliver a bigger audience and allow us to grow the listener base more so than before. We’re also developing an advertising consortium from the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association to help pay the bills.  In exchange, I’ll do, low key, heart warming features on the businesses which are involved in the community in various, often, philanthropic ways.  But, having a show like mine on AM is tough, as it’s more tailored to the FM “NPR-ish” audience. 

What else happened?  A huge, well as a friend put it, “shutter click” on my life preoccupied me for the last three to four weeks, or so.  This is it: my lovely, brainy, daughter Sheena was married to a very nice young man named Ryan in the Virginia Beach area in the latter part of September.  It was one those paradigm-shifting, beautifully surreal yet simultaneously solidly wonderful moments that ranks as the very  best in my life.  I had the honor of walking her down the aisle and “giving her away,” although I have some issues with the chauvinistically-driven dogma of the actual ceremony, as in the whole aspect of giving a woman away to another man.  I mean, my daughter’s an incredibly strong and intelligent woman, who in my observation is quietly matriarchal in her generation of family members on her mother’s side, which is a very large brood.  It’s been one of my life’s fabulous joys watching her grow and evolve, and witnessing the impact she has on the world around her.  Sheena is a very deep and profoundly caring soul.  She’s not too far away from realizing her goal as a child psychologist, as she’ll begin her doctorate work in the field fairly soon.   I love her and I miss her.  Yet, I know she’s made a wise and loving choice in selecting her mate. May God shine on them, and may their love thrive eternally.

I wish I could say the same for me.  I am extremely relationship challenged.  And, maybe I should leave it at that, although I could say I’m basically retarded in that department.  Lord knows I’m not trying to disparage developmentally disabled people in saying that.  But, it doesn’t seem normal; or maybe I’m too damn eccentric and eclectic to attract anyone who’ll understand, accept and love me, whom I’m attracted to in return.  Maybe I’m past the point of really caring about it.  If that’s the case, then it’s a sadder state of affairs than I previously imagined.  I’ll continue, though, to love the world around me and its beauty as long as I breath, and then maybe as long as my spirit is part of the universe’s energy.  Yet, this much I do know… The world loves me back. Otherwise, I might not be here now having done all I’ve done, survived all I’ve survived, and accomplished what I’ve, so far, been able to accomplish.  So, I’ll continue to live vicariously, in the romantic sense, through those who are happily in love and well adjusted and fulfilled in their ability to love and be loved in return. Those blessed souls like my, beautiful daughter Sheena, and her, so far, knight of a husband Ryan. 

Well, thanks, as always for checking out my blog. In the next several days I’ll resume posting in the manner I’ve been posting, now that “dream time” is over.  And, yes it does seem I’ve been dreaming for a long time.

The Absurdity of it all…

Though it seemed President Obama was MIA during the summer, well, especially during the political absurdity that marked the month of August, he emerged in fighting form,and very reminiscent of the dynamic candidate that captured more than half of the country’s imagination.  His address to a joint session of Congress was sharp, no nonsense, and on-point in terms of temperament and impact.

Now, if I may continue to use fighting metaphorically, it seemed the president, whom many even in his own party was beginning to write off as somewhat dilettantish in his approach to politics in the grandest arena imaginable, was kind of “rope-a-doping” his opponents. 

Think Muhammed Ali and his historic battle with a young George Foreman who kept pounding and pounding Ali who stationed himself on the ropes taking blow after blow. Ali’s point was was to strategically let Foreman wear himself out, partly physically as he began flailing wildly, and finally psychologically as he became more and more agitated at Ali’s calm deportment under such painful duress. The end result? Ai scored a KO and won against the odds.

Well, it seems Obama cooly laid on the ropes if you will, while assessing the flammable political landscape surrounding Health Care reform while the conservatives pounded and pounded him with blow after increasingly absurd blow. Obama confidently came out  and boldly articulated his vision for sweeping reform, which may or may not include a public option.

But, and yes, it’s been reported ad nauseam at this point, but I just couldn’t believe Representative Joe Wilson’s abhorrently disrespectful outburst.  You know, the “YOU LIE,” invective. I was flabbergasted, but not at all surprised since it was just another indication of  how the Republican Right Wing continues to create a crazy, and ultimately dangerous, atmosphere of extreme contemptuousness toward the President, and indeed the presidency itself – when it’s not in their party’s hands.

Our so called national Health Care debate, clearly, seems less and less about the points of the democrats’ proposal or the  intended egalitarian nature of the intended outcome of ensuring every one of us has adequate health care.  It is more and more, sadly it seems, about our President’s perceived “foreignness.”  Think about it – no, really, seriously.  ”He’s black,” is what seems to be the loudest outspoken passive-aggressive commentary at the foundation of the weird “fascist, socialist, nazi,” protest circus.  ”Obama? What kind of name is that for an American president?”  ”He has to have been born in Kenya. He just has to!”  Well, that’s what seems to be the unspoken sentiment that Jimmy Carter, who obviously doesn’t care much about “political correctness,” and who was never one to mince words, succinctly and uncomfortably reminded us. 

It’s a blessing, however absurd, when you closely examine it.  We Americans were beginning to act a little too smugly self righteous about our strides in race relations. But like so much about our  ”don’t scratch too deeply below the surface” society, we’ve discovered we have so much further to go and so much more work in that area to accomplish.  It’s fairly clear at this point at least a quarter if not a full  third of the American people, and maybe even more, are uncomfortable with the notion of a President Obama if not with the man himself.

But, what’s interesting here are the lessons – for the future certainly, Obama is giving us.  I’m sure he’s well aware of the code behind his opposition’s disturbing parlance and “democratic discourse.”  But, he pushes on seemingly unaffected by it, undoubtedly drawing from the unique, real world, sociological laboratory that birthed and raised him.  

Earlier, I drew metaphorically on the erstwhile Cassius Clay purposely.  Muhammed Ali is one of the world’s most revered athletes. When he was fighting back in the 60s through the 70s he was vilified here in America, because he was audacious and outspoken, and – black.  Even more so when he changed his name to Ali, pledged allegiance to the Nation of Islam, and refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War.

But, eventually the tide of even white America’s public opinion began to change as more people saw the admirable content of Ali’s character, as well as his lion heart of a champion – meaning his tireless determination to win, and then help change the world as he cared for people. All people.

Obama’s not Ali; Ali’s not Obama, of course.  Obama’s more of a fighter than I previously gave him credit for, though.  It’s increasingly interesting to see just how much he draws the polemical absurdity out of the Right Wing as it flails about looking more and more like a bad actor in a jaded Kabuki play.

Teddy’s Gone…

Teddy Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, the Patriarch of America’s democratic political family, and the soul of the party itself, in the wake of his brothers’ tragic deaths, has passed.

I’m distressed, as I’m of the generation where the Kennedys mattered, where their noble vision for a better America imbued me with an eternal sense of optimism and created a fire that burns within me to fight for what’s right.

I had an opportunity, once, to meet Ted Kennedy in Washington, D.C. when I was a “young buck” stationed at Naval District Washington.  I was part of a small cadre of naval assistant types who were attending the Chairman, Joint Chiefs, confirmation hearing for Admiral William Crowe.  The hearings were in the Senate’s Dirksen Building before the Armed Services Committee. 

We were dressed in civilian clothes, so as to not draw “uniformed” attention. The funny thing about the Senate at the time, given it was before the heightened paranoia, or I should say “more situationally aware” time of post 9-11, is we, non Senate types, were allowed access to the same general areas as even the Senators themselves.  But, then again, we all had significant security clearances and Pentagon IDs to begin with.

But, in the case were I met Senator Kennedy, it was in the bathroom near the door of the hearing rooms’ gallery.  I know this sounds rather peculiar, but, there I was saddled up to a urinal relieving myself, and I look up and over to see Teddy Kennedy approaching the one next to mine.  Okay, yeah, I know it’s sounding even more peculiar, and you’re probably wondering- “Where’s he going with this?”

Relax, it’s not as weird as it may seem at this juncture. But, I was dumbfounded and awe struck, because the Kennedys were among my greatest heroes. Teddy, maybe sensing my nervousness simply looked over and smiled and said, “Hi young man.” 

When we approached the sink at almost the same time, he struck up a small conversation.  He asked if I were a new aid, and I replied, no, and told him I was Sailor assigned to monitor Admiral Crowe’s confirmation hearing and take notes. He smiled and said, “great,” and that he felt the Admiral was a great leader and, in all likelihood, would make a terrific Chairman, Joint Chiefs, which is the nation’s highest uniformed rank. The President, of course, is the Commander in Chief, period.  Then, Senator Kennedy, simply said, “good luck,” to me and walked off to take his seat. 

It wasn’t much of a meeting, but it was enough for me to gauge for myself how genuine and warm Teddy Kennedy was.  Of course hewas larger than life, especially to someone like me, but after that brief encounter I paid more attention to him and his achievements.

As I write this, thousands of scribes are writing, and have written, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of words, about Kennedy’s exploits, successes, failures, desires, impact, Senate record; you name it.  There’s not much more I can add to that to make this worth your time reading.  But, I will say this, the Kennedys, that one magical generation of brothers and sisters, did more than 500 politicians to move our country forward as a beacon of hope and a paragon of true equality that ultimately allowed the son of a White woman from the midwest and a African father from Kenya become President of the United States. And, Teddy, especially helped make that happen, in very large measure when he endorsed Obama last year.

Now, I hope President Obama can live up to what Teddy saw in him, and boldly and confidently, as Jack did, as Robert was poised to do had he lived to be elected to the White House, and as Teddy did, quietly and consistently, as the Senate’s Lion, and its most unashamedly and unapologetically liberal standard bearer, move our country forward, progressively, to ensure every one of our citizens have decent health care that doesn’t bankrupt them.

There is a vacuum tonight. Teddy’s gone, and finally, the last chapter of the book of Camelot is closed. And, what a great book it was. History, I’m sure will be more than kind to the Kennedys, as the full impact of their lives of public service, and their tragedies, will be placed in perspectives that mean-spirited conservatives could no longer tarnish or taint.

Teddy’s gone, but his, and his brothers’ spirit, is still with us. May we try to live up to Jack’s famous call to selfless patriotism, which seems to be lost completely on today’s crop of Right Wingers, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!”  A credo that guides my life, even today.

Teddy’s gone, Jack’s gone, and so is Bobby… as well as Eunice, who of course started the Special Olympics. But, we’re still here. I ask, as they might, What are you going to do to make our country better, brighter, stronger, and gentler? 

The Kennedy legacy lives within all of us Progressives, and we have to fight, as they fought to make continue to force our nation to, as Jack once said during his presidential campaign in 1960, “Practice what it preaches!”

The Dissin’ States of America…

How could I’ve ever been so naive, or, more accurately, hopeful? Well, at least I’d like to think I was more hopeful than naive. Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago I wrote how a “calm” had come over our land.  Ha, ha… Yeah, buddy, that was akin to the veritable calm before the mother funkin’ storm, I guess you could say.

Our national “conversation” on health care reform devolved into some cheap, if we ever really could have, again, ever really, and I mean, ever seriously imagined this – a bizarre facsimile of a Jerry Springer show.

It seems, apparently too much TV does rot your brain.  But, man, it was terribly distressing watching scene after scene of “Seniors gone Wild,” take over legislative town hall meetings, and then consequently news cycles from one end of the broadcast, cable, and satellite television spectrum to the other.  

Although, I have to admit it was rather entertaining, in that guilty pleasure kind of way, to witness Sen. Arlen Specter besieged by a significant slice of his Pennsylvania conservative constituency that felt genuinely, and deeply, betrayed by his bolt over to the Democratic party.

 As the old cliche goes; you should dance with the one who brought you. Not that, as a progressive, I’m complaining about his political make-over, but he did spend the large measure of his Senate career exploiting conservatism for his own political expediency.

Then, of course, there’s the even more macabre sideshow – let’s call it the “Gunners,”  which, is getting scarier and scarier. You know, it’s with the guys who started showing up at President Obama’s town halls and speeches with guns in full display and seemingly intimidating, if not outright malevolent, intent.  And, it appears  it’s more and more “okay” to accept this. I mean, what do you think would happen if I showed up outside a Bush, or Cheney, appearance during their administration with a loaded AR-15? And, obviously, that’s a rhetorical question.

I’m all for a rigorous and lively political debate about everything that impacts our future in this country, and certainly health care is no exception. But, we’ve been witnessing has been rather insightful as to how penetratingly deep the fear is that Right Wingers have of losing a “grip” on the mantle of power they’ve enjoyed for so long.

Their behavior, not to mention their tactics, is, of course, repugnant and startlingly frightening, in the aspect they’ll resort to violence and TERRORISM at the seeming drop of a hat. They see an enemy in everyone who is not like them, thinks like them, looks like them, nor agrees with them.  And, in classically non-democratic fashion, they seek to vanquish their “enemy” countrymen and everything their “enemy” represents.

But, the mainstream Right Wing, which once partitioned itself from the truly crazy inhabitants on it’s furthest, outermost, fringe, such as neonazis and White Christian separatists and the like, seem to be willing to, more and more, cater to that fringe-dwelling toxic ideology, as they openly embrace, and propagate coded, hateful, emotionally charged, drivel, which is nothing short of inciting a constant state of xenophobia, both domestic and abroad, which is poised to erupt in volcanic violence.  Which, I’m beginning to think is what they want, because it will allow them to seize power in a fascist manner.

Remember what George W. Bush said not that long ago, actually – governing would be much easier if it were a dictatorship.  During his administration, it seems we were dangerously close to that happening.

So, the health care debate continues in a very poisonous atmosphere, and it seems, what ever aspect of health care reform emerges from the increasing murkiness of an intellectually watered down debate, it will lack the necessary “oomph,” to provide health care to every American in the U.S.  And, for that, we should all be ashamed that we live in a country – the so-called greatest country on Earth, that our citizens will have to first consider if they can “afford” to take care of any, and all, of their health concerns.

I leave with you another sad story to illustrate my point.

This past Saturday, as I was leaving the Olympic Athletic Club, I witnessed a car accident on the corner.  One car was heading down Leary Way  in my direction, and another car suddenly hurtled out of the Cafe Fiore parking lot and hit the car on Leary. It was that vehicle, proceeding on Leary, that sustained the most damage, as in it appeared to be “totaled,” and it seemed the driver could’ve been hurt. 

I ran over to the car to lend a hand. The driver, a kind-looking woman in her mid, to late, 50′s, was shaken up pretty badly. Her airbag deployed, and that, in and of itself you know, will at least knock you silly.

She seemed to be really stunned and said she felt numb, and  ”tingly” down on side.  I’m not a paramedic but I do know enough to see that was indicative of, possibly, her spine got jacked as a result of the force and angle of the collision.

I, and another good samaritan, helped her from the car and took her to a business on the corner to collect herself and wait for more professional help. When I told her, “Don’t worry Paramedics are on the way,” she suddenly panicked and said, “Oh no, I can’t have them look at me!”  I asked why, of course, and she replied, “I don’t have any health insurance, and I can’t afford to have them take me to an emergency room.”

How sad is that?  I mean, really?  She could certainly have spinal trauma, of some sort, that might not surface for awhile, but she won’t get herself checked out because of her economic constraints.

And, that’s the state were in, here in America. We’re all “dissed!”  Big corporate brother, and the crazy Right Wingers who hate that a man of color is president, will go to whatever lengths, however insane and unethical, to ensure we as a nation of people will continue to ignore building a solvent, caring, community that works for the common good, and not against it.

It’s sad, but in the immortal words of the now dearly departed Walter Cronkite – “That’s the way it is!”  The question is: what in the world will we, who know better, much, much, better, do about it? 

Every day, we do nothing, the Right Wing wins another battle in their war for total, and absolute, control and we devolve further into a nation that “once was,” more than what is strong, powerful, caring, and for the people and of the people.

On Decency… reclaiming the high ground!

Last week, a day after I wrote the last post, I left the gym – Ballard’s Olympic Athletic Club (lil’ plug there) after a typically robust workout, and boy, did I have a surprise.  I noticed someone left a loooong note on my windshield.  You know, it was the sort where you instantly say to your self, “This can’t be good.” 

Though it was legibly written in nice, bold print, I strained to read it in the dark parking lot adjacent to Cafe Fiore – around the corner from the Olympic.  It was, after all, 10pm, or so.  But, I quickly made out the beginning of it.  ”Sorry I backed into your car…”   Oh my. I knew it wasn’t going to be good.  I already had a ton of stuff spilling off of my plate, which is already heavy with a need to escape any and everything associated with work and just hang out for the summer. 

But, here it was – another issue, screaming, “Take care of me!”  Though, I didn’t quite know the expanse of it yet.  I thought, in that sad, little, voice we all have when, you know, we’re in some sort of trouble we can’t really escape… “My poor little car.” 

I have a love affair with my automobile, since “she’s” always been there for me, no matter what, and I always thought she was quite a little looker, though she’s starting to show some signs of aging. Well, just a bit. 

Now, to the first point of several I intend to make. Someone backed into my driver’s side door – perpendicularly, at night.  It left a nice, little, dent.  It was so dark, I couldn’t really tell at first, but, man, the next morning… Ouch!

But, what’s really cool, is that the lady who hit my car, left, as I mentioned, a nice, long, apology note with her insurance and contact info. It didn’t take me long to realize how lucky I was, because in this day and age it’s really a 50-50 chance that someone, with no one around, would just drive off and let you fend for yourself and deal with the expensive repair on your own. Not, this nice lady.

I called her the next day, and, well rather expectedly to some degree, she was nervous and perhaps a little anxious to talk to me, since she didn’t have any idea who I was, and despite her gracious, responsible, act, she didn’t know how I would react.  I have to say that we had a great conversation, and I really wanted to put her mind, and emotions, at ease. 

Turns out, she’s a school teacher, which is an occupation on my most revered and undervalued list. I thanked her for not only leaving the note, but for being part of the profession that actually has a big hand in shaping our future generations. God, we wound up talking for about a half hour, and, it was almost an afterthought for me to get the insurance info. She actually did the leg work for me, as in calling her agent and getting a claim number for me.

In a word, she was decent. And, I believe I was too, in how I chose to react. Part of our conversation centered on how, when she mentioned what happened at the gym, and after not being able to locate me, because with my iPod blasting me into my own private Idaho I don’t hear anything beyond the ear buds, she was going to leave a note and people were genuinely surprised. As in, surprised that she would be decent and socially responsible.  

She, though, was worried that I would be angry and (verbally) abusive, perhaps. But, I too chose the high ground.  

It seems, everywhere I turn there’s a new, calmer, wind blowing… blowing away the dark, dusky, haze that enveloped us during the Bush-Cheney years.  My god, there was so much anger and fear and anxiety gripping even the most doggedly determined optimists among us. Remember? It seems so long ago, but it was really just yesterday in some cosmic grand scheme of things.

But despite the mainstream media’s ceaseless attempts to keep the “Wing-Nut” escapades in our faces. You know, the “Birthers,” the “Stop the Obama Socialism Health Care” goon squaders, the bellicose exhortations of the Limbaughs, Becks, Hannitys, and O’Reillys, there’s a change sweeping across our land, as more and more people are extending helping hands across many divides, and are seeing the value in living more selflessly than selfishly.  There’s a genuine understanding of community, and eco-sustainable living, principles growing in, what had been even the most resistant pockets of “red state” America.

It’s obvious in how the world is starting to react, much more positively, to us.  

Bill Clinton’s success in getting the release of  the two journalists held by North Korea might not have happened, even just a year ago.  Also, it’s apparent his visit with Kim Jong Il, will lead to a re-invigorated round of productive, cordial, talks that, hopefully will open the door for a retreat of their nuclear-weaponry production ambitions. Which, then may lead to curtailing the sharing of that technology with other, “belligerent” states, such as Iran, and God knows who else.

The bottom line is, decency has its rewards, as arrogance, and a sense of entitlement, has it costs. For individuals like you and I, it could mean someone being “responsible,” when, sadly, the social norm has devolved to a state where that could be considered extraordinary.  For nations, it could mean, being respectful, cordial, but firm and acting like an adult, instead of an arrogant, chest thumping, teenage “bad ass.”

Yet, as it is typical of the republicans these days,  a “usual suspects” line up of conservative commentators hit the airwaves to denounce the former president’s breakthrough.  Among the most irritating to me is John Bolton who, for the most part, is former VP Dick Cheney’s ideological “Mini me.”

He’s one of the hawkiest of war hawks, and apparently believes American foreign policy is best administered with the bluntest of blunt instruments. Also, like Cheney, he’s of the Vietnam generation, and he rose to political power, having evaded going to war in Vietnam, through becoming a national security expert and analyst. 

Unlike Cheney, though, Bolton did enlist in the Maryland National Guard, but admitted doing so in a wholesale effort to avoid going to Vietnam, of which he once wrote, or rather confessed, he “didn’t want to die in some rice paddy.”

What’s gets me is, unlike the preceding generation, which I believe President Eisenhower represents the shining example in the regard that the older they got, the less they were inclined to believe war was the first – not last resort; Bolton, and his contemporaries believe sand exists to draw lines through, and that only good line is a hard line.

We all know America’s got a “big stick,” and is quite capable of wielding it, but this crop of republicans apparently jettisoned the first part of Teddy Roosevelt’s mantra… “Speak softly…”

It’s time we truly reclaim the “high ground,”  decently, diplomatically, and judiciously, which is what this administration’s demonstrating it’s more than willing to do.  The view there’s much better, and decent – isn’t it?!

Latest from Main Street: Racism’s up and Common Sense – down… Hell, let’s have a fire sale!

Wow… A long week, not quite yet behind me – or us, actually. Not, with Mother Nature socking us with another, not so subtle, reminder that climate change is dead on our heels and about to slap us silly if not knock us out altogether.  What was that about the Mayan Calendar again? What year was that?  

Yeah, it feels like a sweltering summer in Washington, alright – Washington D.C.  Which segues me, well nicely I thought, to my latest mused over concern.  What  is up with Barack Obama these days?

I don’t know if you’ve seen the latest polls, but his popularity is dropping. Not disastrously by any measure, but enough for Progressives to be concerned, if not, certainly,  the White House itself.  We all knew it was inevitable. I mean, his approval rating was so high when he was swept into office surfing a weird hybrid of a wave that was half “goodwill to all men,” and toxic residue from a Bush Administration gone all “Dr. Strangelove” like mad!

I remember, vividly, when he, Obama, was elected, and strangely it seems so long ago now. Yet, there is a decidedly warm feeling of calm settling over the expanse of our amber waves of grain, and urban settings from shore to shore it seems.  But, then again, after the eight-year long national nightmare that was the Bush-Cheney Junta, oops, I meant Administration, anything might’ve done the trick, just to get this nation on an even keel again.

Alas, all is not well, though. Our national cancer, racism, seems to be metastasizing, again, at an alarming rate. Which, I believe has a great deal to do with Obama’s sluggish approval within the American body politic, and, which is poised to lead us further down the sinkhole of economic and sociological hell.  And, you have to credit our very own Ayatollah’s of Machiavellian denouement of decency and true intelligence – the Republican Right Wing, and their demented little pawns and sycophants.

“OBAMAS A RACIST!   HE HATES WHITE PEOPLE AND WHITE CULTURE,” screams the angry, petty, little damn-near millionaire if not one already, self-proclaimed entertainer out of the idiot box’s most inanely idiotic channel.   Need I say which one? It seems, he and, Oxy-cuntin, please excuse my lapse into profanity, for he is truly a profane mutation of a human being, Rush ‘limp balls” – God, I did it again!

 Okay, I know I’m better than those sad little men who are getting rich out of propagating misery and hate, but, lord, they peeve the hell out of me.  But it seems Glen Beck is competing with Rush Limbaugh for sleaziest, and craziest, Fringe Wing talking head.

But, you can’t quarrel with the raw, naked, viscous, and viscerally slimy effectiveness of drawing up play, after society-denigrating play,  from a well-worn Right Wing playbook that was written by the John Birchers and, endorsed by “Tail Gunner” Joe (McCarthy) back in the paranoia-drenched “vigilance is next to Godliness,” and, currency, 1950′s.

These vermin of zombie inducing indecency are true masters of attacking your opponent, and subsequently labeling him, or her, with your most adamant and damning weakness. In this case the American Right Wing racists, who make the white South African resistance to post apartheid rule look meek and retiring, are calling America’s first truly multi-racially oriented leader a racist is just another example of a twisted, sick, design on maintaining absolute power in a republic that is quickly evolving beyond their rudimentary grasps of sociology, anthropology, changing geo-policy, and just about every other “ology,” known to the learned universe.

Yet, I agree with them, in a way their hate-addled brains may never absorb.   Obama is indeed a racist – a HUMAN RACIST!

But, the President, who perhaps slipping into the “coolest professor I’ve never had” mode, allowed himself to be dragged into those nasty, murky, waters by answering that one question I’m sure he now regrets answering so honestly, if not politically indelicately, at the press conference to advance his ” health care needs immediate surgery” agenda.  You know the question – the one that prompted the “Cambridge Police acted stupidly,” answer.

And, now his plan to provide every single American with some type of  workable, life-saving, health care is in jeopardy.  A plan that’s already 20 years late.

C’mon, Mr. President – you’re so much smarter than that!  Beer summit, or not, this was a unnecessary distraction fueling the media’s obsession with obfuscating the health care issue to the point where people are actually believing “Obama” wants to kill seniors!

You know how I know the health care plan is in danger of going the way Bill and Hillary’s did in the 90′s?  Here’s the perspective of a typical Seattle area mother.  You could describe her as a political “middle of the roader,” which many people here in Washington State are outside the progressive oases of Seattle’s patchwork of generationally-liberal enclaves.  She’s my sister’s best friend, and she lost her brother earlier this year to a complicated heart condition his “local” hospital would not treat because he didn’t have health insurance.  

In all ironies, of perhaps “only in America” ironies, he owned a home and paid his mortgage. But, he couldn’t afford health insurance, or at least couldn’t afford both at the same time. So he died. He was refused life-saving care – in AMERICA!  And, he wasn’t an “ethnic,”  guy. He was a Pacific Northwest born and bred white guy of European heritage. In other words, he was, in many ways the average American Joe.

 But, when I suggested his sister write a letter to the White House explaining the cruel, health-insurance deprived, circumstances that directly led to his death, she balked.

 ”Why?  I don’t think I agree with this National Health Care plan,” she said.  ”Isn’t it going to lead to more problems, and more government interference and more taxes?”

 Yeah… I know what you’re saying, or thinking. That’s what I thought, too.  I knew at that moment my sister’s friend, an accidental barometer of the atmosphere of  common sense, if not outright socio-economic survival, in a society about to collapse under the weight of a health-care system gone bonkers, represented the shifting American mood.  This, is a tragedy of huge, soon to be felt and seen, proportions.

In the meantime the peddlers of severe American self-destructive, myopic stupidity, are high-fiving each other, mimicking the “brothers” they seem to loathe with such nastiness.

Speaking of which, did you hear, or read, about the Boston cop in hot water for being, well, I have to say, stooopid!  Read, his email…  Please draw your own conclusions.  And, remember, his ire was undoubtedly stoked by the “Fringers.”  His name is “Officer Barrett.”   This is an email he wrote after being incensed by a column he read in the Boston Globe newspaper concerning the now, infamous, and I believe somewhat racially-motivated, police harassment of Professor, and Obama’s friend, Gates. Again, Beer summit, or not.

  Be prepared to be either shocked, or not, depending on how long you might’ve lived “Black in the USA.”  I’ll leave it at that – no need to comment afterwards, since this guy is my pick for this year’s Darwin Award!  Not necessarily because of what he expressed, or the shoddy manner in which he expressed it while criticizing a professional writer who was simply exercising freedom of the press. No, this cop, who thinks like, perhaps a frightening number of his peers, and average Joes, do,  had the questionable temerity to write it down – and email it!  

Which brings me to the title of this post… Common sense?  Monkeys, indeed seem to have more common sense than you, officer.  But, it seems we Americans are quickly making a casualty of what was once an American hallmark, that, of course,  being common sense.

Meantime, racism’s indeed up, and Black men are, once again a favorite, if not convenient, target.  Even if that Black man is the leader of the free world.

It seems the Right Wing is hell bent on sending us all to hell on earth.  Time for  a fire sale… You have to wonder, when they’re done, what will we have left?  Progressives, we have to be more assertive. If Obama’s election meant “we” were taking back our country, then we can’t afford to be complacent.  Like, I said, read the rant below, and if that ‘s not another alarm for you, then I don’t know what is.

  ******************************************************************************************************************************* 

“That was by far the worst article I’ve ever read. I am a former English teacher, writer, current police officer, father, husband and military veteran. You need to be corrected and I certainly hope others have attempted, for your written messages and material is so 4th grade level, I am embarrassed I paid 1.50 for the paper [rest assured, it is my aim to tell as many readers The Boston Globe and your biased reporting is both sub standard and strictly one sided].

For you are not professional and basically, your writing is ridiculous. A reader may assume, per your article, that criminals are never well-dressed with a tucked in polo [2nd paragraph]. Your defense [4th paragraph] of Gates while he is on the phone while being confronted [INDEED] with a police officer is assuming he has rights when considered a suspect. He is a suspect and will always be a suspect.

His first priority of effort should be to get off the phone and comply with the police, for if I was the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC [oleoresin caseinate aka pepper gas] deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.

Further [5th paragraph], a reader may assume that crimes only happen in back alleys at 0300?! You’re kidding me, right? Are you still in the 5th Grade, Catholic School?

That paragraph was a s pathetic as jungle monkey gibberish — I might as well ax you the question, Is this your first test at reporting?”

You do not understand roles, tactics, and dangers police officers face, as apparently you think no one wearing a polo might possess a firearm of knife on his/her person. Might you fathom a woman could be a criminal? Or are criminals all hairy, dirty, stinky, mean ugly looking men?

You are a hot little bird with minimal experience in a harsh field. You are a fool. An infidel. You have no business writing for a US newspaper nevermind [sic] detailing and analyzing half truths. You should serve me coffee and donuts on Sunday morning.

My last point counters your final 2 paragraphs, in which you state Gates is, “this immensely famous expert on race” — you really have to be kidding me? Famous for what? Expert why and says who?

What has he done for the law enforcement community or military veterans or to secure freedoms and our borders in this country? What has he done to limit and reduce my income tax?

He has proven to work to get himself attention and become a wealthy lecturer. He lectures students on the subject of racial ethics and profiling. Jee whiz. I must attend that lecture lest I lose my identity and right to free speech and the right to celebrate God and beliefs as I see fit.

I am not a racist, but I am prejudice towards people whop are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they claim is freedom when it is merely attention because you do not receive enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers.

You mention gates’ charges were dropped but that it was too late to stop the damage? Damage? Still kidding? You need to serve a day with the infantry and get swarmed by black gnats while manning your sector. Or you just need to get slapped, look in the mirror and admit, “Wow, I am a failure. I am a follower. Who am I kidding?”

Again I like a warm cruller and hot Panamanian, black. No sugar.

Your final statement reads, Gates, whose great success has allowed him to transcend the racial divide” to which I ask, when did he transcend?

He indeed has transcended back to a bumbling jungle monkey, thus he forever tremains [sic] amid this nation’s great social/racial divide that makes it a free and great nation mixed with crazy awkward differences.

Go ahead, ax me what I think? Gates is a goddamned fool and you the article writer simply a poor follower and maybe worse, a poor writer.

Your article title should read CONDUCT UNBECOMING A JUNGLE MONKEY –BACK TO ONE’S ROOTS. JB”