Now that I am grown up. . .

. . . at least SOMETIMES I feel like I'm grown up . . . 

. . . I need to take a stand on the future of my country.  Even well into adulthood, more politically- vocal elders of mine voiced opinions about 'wasting' a vote or 'throwing away' a vote that would elect 'his' opponent.  Well it's time for principle.  At the core of any political disagreement, it seems that many debaters actually agree on issues like waste in government,  a bloated and expensive campaign process or inequality in one form or another.  And not matter how many good things the current President has accomplished (for those concerned with facts), he could have done much more. Be aware that we also have, in addition to the BIG TWO,  Socialist, Libertarian, Green and Liberty parties involved in the election.  Educate yourself, heaven knows the network news is NOT going to help you out there.  And vote your conscience and your heart.

Ten reasons to vote for Rocky Anderson (Liberty Party):

1. The promotion of the public interest through the defeat of the systemic corruption that has caused massive failures in public policy.
2. An immediate end to the on-going wars.
3. Essential health care coverage for all citizens.
4. Urgent international leadership by the U.S. to prevent against the most catastrophic consequences of climate disruption.
5. Adequate revenues to balance the budget through fair taxation.
6. Treatment of substance abuse as a public health, rather than criminal justice, issue.
7. Control of the Federal Reserve by the Treasury Department and Congress.
8. A balanced budget (or a surplus) except in times of war or major recession.
9. An end to the legal concept of corporate “personhood;” a constitutional amendment to overrule Citizens United.
10. An end to the stranglehold on our government by the military-industrial complex.

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GENERALizing. . .

. . . about the rich or the poor gets us nowhere . . .

Mitt Romney says that since our current President practices the "politics of division" (he obviously lives in a cocoon),  many intelligent (maybe that's the missing element) Americans are quite conscious of the existing rift between rich and poor in this country.  Pew Social & Demographic Trends found 66% of Americans see strong conflicts between the two groups, and a full 19% more than did in 2009.

Almost half of the people interviewed said they thought rich people are rich because they were born into rich families or know the right people and a comparable percentage thought the rich earned their riches through hard work, ambition or education. 

Well, both groups are correct.  And like any other group of two or more human beings, within each of those rich populations there are good, honest, principled people and there are lying, cheating, dishonest charlatans as well.

Much like the perception that rich (sometimes not-so-rich-yet conservative, white-collar-middle-to-upper-middle-class) people hold that poor people are poor because they are lazy and therefore do not work hard, have no ambition and are as a result (or as a cause) have no education.  And they are right also. . . that is about SOME poor people.  But if they are speaking of a group of two or more poor people, they are not considering the good, honest, principled people who have tried but have suffered setbacks, disadvantages, discrimination, bad luck, bad circumstances or bad timing who have not been able to attain the success that some may THINK these poor people could have attained.

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It was the best of times . . .

. . . A Tale of Two Brothers

It was the best of rides.  It was the worst of rides.  One brother, who taking abode on the far distant coast of the country from where up he grew, decided to gather his various possessions, which up until this date, had been stored mightily by his family in a personal storage facility in the latter mentioned locale.  The other brother, of a combination of sheer kindness and selfish adventure, agreed to accompany the first in ye olde Penske van with aforementioned possessions, on the trip by road to the adopted home of the first brother.  So off they went.

The second brother’s primarily-desired adventure was to visit the gravesite of Alferd Packer, a convicted cannibal and Civil War participant. The first brother did not share equally the enthusiasm of the first in this adventure and went to no great lengths to portray any.  In fact, he did not want to deviate from the straightest route home to make this stop at all.  But the second brother would not be swayed, and was kind and humorous in his discourse about the desired adventure, so much so that the first brother could not openly object to the deviation.

Upon arrival, and well ahead of what would have been assumed to be an average rate of such travel by such means, the two brothers arrived at the burial site of Mr. Packer.  Heretofore the first bother took it upon himself to write to his father.  His dispatch read as below:

“So we’re here.  Spencer doesn’t know where the grave is and the cemetery is covered in goose shit.”

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It's a new experience. . .

 . . . a new sensation.  It's a feeling I never, or at least rarely, even considered.   I'm not talking about mushrooms or any type of ingestible substance.  I'm talking about saying goodbye to two of your children who are driving ACROSS THE COUNTRY!!

You prepare for it, both by packing and psyching yourself into acceptance.  But when the day of departure finally arrives, you find that you're never prepared quite enough.  


Very strange sensation, to say the least.  (As I write, they may be in Ohio.)

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Scary stuff. . .

From www.seocollege.org news. . .

(Republican Presidential candidate, Texas Governer Rick) ". . . Perry is saying that one reason our country's problems are so intractable is "because we are a nation that has not honored God in our successes or humbly called on Him in our struggles."

And Perry's going to fix that.

On August 6th, he's going to be leading a huge prayer rally called The Response, in which he will call upon Americans to "pray and fast" so God will forgive us and help us fix the country.

Perry is leading this prayer rally, political analysts say, so he can win over evangelical Christian voters, who make up 60% of GOP voters in two key early primary states, Iowa and South Carolina. And if that's all he's doing at the prayer rally--saying stuff that these voters want to hear--then he'll be doing just what every other politician is doing, so we shouldn't get too worked up about it.

Far more frightening is the possibility that Perry actually believes what he is saying--that the reason America has racked up such colossal debts and has such a massive budget deficit is because we haven't been paying enough attention to God.

God did not vote for the budgets and policies that ballooned our deficit. Congress and the President did. So laying our problems off on God's disfavor--and suggesting that the way to fix them is to start doing a better job of honoring Him--is disturbing, to say the least.

And then there's the small matter of the separation of church and state.

The First Amendment of the Constitution says that the government can't establish a state-sponsored religion, and many Americans interpret the spirit of this amendment far more widely than that. . . "



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Gumbo, of sorts. . .

Anyone who was into popular music in the 1970s is aware of the groups, bands and artists who were affected by country and/or southern influences: the Eagles; Poco; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Sacco and Vanzetti-as the Wonderful WINO DJ played by George Carlin would say), the Band; the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; the Amazing Rhythm Aces; the Charlie Daniels Band; Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show and many others. Funny, I can now appreciate much of the music by all these bands, but like the early jazz critics who said that what Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were playing was NOISE, I was a country purist. I loved my Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Roy Clark, George Jones, Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash unadulterated. I didn't want any 'rock' mixed in with my pure, precious country music. Of course, country influenced rock, Cajun funk and swamp was into country, rock was into New Orleans. . . well you get the picture. And although maybe I just wasn't sophisticated enough to 'get it' at the time, I sure do get it now. And I love it.




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But I only want to. . .

. . . SING!! NNNAAAHHHHHH! Not really.

Joe, of the American Flyer mentioned above, was himself branching out from country into other types of music. And Joe was also, in fact, a guitarist, which naturally led to a musical collaboration. Electric guitar and accordion. And no vocals. Although not striking me at the time, I find it amusing, in hindsight, that I never attempted (thankfully) vocals (of course, POST-Wyatt Earp [see prior blogs]). While all, or most, kids who play guitars, drums and various forms of keyboards as young bands in garages and basements or an occasional backyard in the summertime, want to and do sing, I quite naturally shied away from vocals. I did play with vocalists but never seriously attempted vocals after about the age of eight.

And of course, after hearing folks like this years later, why even try? I do attempt vocals on recordings these days, but this is merely in the interest of 'demoing' the songs since I do write lyrics quite frequently. It's not something I'm very comfortable with nor very adept.




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Simplicity

There is definitely beauty in simplicity. I had earlier found such beauty in country music. My earliest memory of thoroughly enjoying country music is kind of an odd story. My parents, for some unknown reason (and I don't accurately remember precisely WHAT they would purchase) went 'shopping' at a local discount store called TOPPS. They did this EVERY FRIDAY evening.
When I was younger, I would go, of course. In my later trips to Topps, I would spend the period in the record section of the store browsing through all the vinyl beauties that were available at the time, popular items of which retailed for $3.47. (I'm not sure why I remember that number. It may simply be due to the fact the I had little money and kept close tabs on how much I would need to purchase things that I found desireable. By the way, Luskins (another retailer of the time) sold record albums for $2.99 so needless to say, I visited Luskins whenever I could.) I found myself drifting toward country music record albums. It's now unclear what, specifically influenced this branch in my musical development, (I do remember my cousin owned the 45 of Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash, which MAY be the original spark to the country music fire that consumed me at the time.) but I do remember (and don't laugh PLEASE) that the television program "HeeHaw" came about before, during or shortly after this time, which undoubtedly provided another opportunity for exposure to country artists of the day.

So I spent my Topps evening looking at Buck Owens, Charley Pride, Porter Wagoner, Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall and others popular country artists at the time. Later, when my parents embarked upon the weekly jaunt to Topps, I stayed behind to happily wash the dinner dishes. Why happily? Because in the other room, the 'ancient' (even back then) radio we inherited from an aunt was playing WBMD AM loudly enough for me to hear in the kitchen. The 'genre' of the playlist on WBMD at the time - Country Music.





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