I M Mary Ann Cherry

I M Mary Ann Cherry: Bye Bye CRA

2012-02-03T20:51:00.001-08:00

Bye Bye CRA

2012-02-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Too much going on for me to say much at this moment.

I'll let the good folks over at Hollywood-Highlands entertain and bring you up to speed on what's important and what is funny. They don't mean to make a joke of the powers in city hall, it just happens naturally. It all seems so organic. Maybe it's improvisational (with the right props, of course). Whatever you call it, it shows a lack of respect for our first amendment rights (you don't have to be there for your rights to get kicked around). H-H call themselves oddballs. Others have said "gadflies" and I've heard them called much worse. I prefer to call them successful wags.

The great news is that the California RDA (Redevelopment Agency), including LA's own CRA, is history. Gone. Kaput. CRA was the worse use of public funds and probably the most damaging organization to hit the middle class. With the CRA dissolved, no more areas will be declared "blighted" and families tossed on their butts to create "development" (note: shopping malls, high income housing, mixed use properties). More wealthy people became richer and fatter and more bloated through RDA funding and dirty backroom deals due to the CRA. And more working class people had the rug pulled out from under them, their homes seized (not from foreclosure, this was done through "imminent domain") as a result of the same development plan.

That's the beginning and a grossly abridged version of the whole story. Check out Hollywood-Highlands for the end of the story.

Red-Hot Cigarette

2012-01-17T20:28:00.000-08:00

Red Hot Patriot: the Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins
(at GeffenPlayhouse)

The play lives up to all the hype surrounding the incomparable Molly Ivins. Crisp and tight writing by journalists, and twins, Margaret Engel and Allison Engel quickly transports the audience into the sharp edged world of Ivins. Equally crisp, and slightly sparse, staging (by John Arnone) helped and under the direction of David Esbjornson, I could almost feel the newsprint on my fingers.

I learned a bit more about Ivin’s personal life, her key relationships, specifically her father “the General,” than I expected and less about the source of her “kick ass wit.” This is Molly Ivin’s biography. While her story is at least as interesting as anything else on stage these days, the play is not really ‘about’ her wit. It contains a good amount of the real Molly Ivins wit and repartee to make the 75 minutes move quickly and enjoyably. It’s only gingerly theorized that Ivins spent her life, consciously or unconsciously dedicated her professional career responding to “The General.” When in fact, the real Molly Ivins had so much more to say and I’ll just accept that some things, like the “kick-ass wit of Molly Ivins” must remain a mystery.

I love Kathleen Turner. She is one of the few actors who can, in my book, do no wrong. I wish she had quit smoking cigarettes about 10 or 20 years ago. It was difficult to hear her and when I was able to hear, it was a bit painful to listen to her.

I still recommend that you see this play. It is refreshing in this time of watered-down, pristine, journalism and propaganda scantily clad as well researched editorial. What Molly Ivins represents to me is the courage it takes to say the obvious and the fact that she had the ability to spice it with that kick-ass wit never cheapened what she had to say. She said the truth over and over again. And I miss that.

I miss cigarettes too, sometimes.

Here's an Idea on How to Reduce the Deficit

2011-11-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

	This is an open letter to the Joint Select Committee-- the members of Congress who have the unenviable task of reducing the deficit. We all hear horror stories about the necessity for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We hear elected representatives fighting to protect the 2001 and 2003 tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. No one has mentioned the obvious place to begin all this deficit reduction-- the expenditure created by our representatives. We don't need to cut Government programs as much as we demand cuts to Government overhead. This includes salaries, benefits, office furniture, entertainment expenses, all the perks that members of Congress have grown accustomed to but don't really need. The American people are asking for congressional prudence before they touch one red-cent of seniors and disabled dollars. They need to come back to earth with their own salaries and benefits packages and join the rest of us taking "a hit" in this economy.

This is an open letter to the Joint Select Committee-- the members of Congress who have the unenviable task of reducing the deficit.

We all hear horror stories about the necessity for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. We hear elected representatives fighting to protect the 2001 and 2003 tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. No one has mentioned the obvious place to begin all this deficit reduction-- the expenditure created by our representatives. We don't need to cut Government programs as much as we demand cuts to Government overhead. This includes salaries, benefits, office furniture, entertainment expenses, all the perks that members of Congress have grown accustomed to but don't really need.

The American people are asking for congressional prudence before they touch one red-cent of seniors and disabled dollars. They need to come back to earth with their own salaries and benefits packages and join the rest of us taking "a hit" in this economy.

Please participate in our democracy, sign your name and repost for others to do the same.

Thanks!

They want a focus, focus on this: Step back. Let the people work this out peacefully

2011-10-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

We must not allow the oligarchy to uproot the important Occupy movement.

Tax payers, registered voters paved those streets and built these city halls. This is OUR government. Dianne Feinstein, Councilman Rosendahl, and Mayor V must be put on notice that they work for us. The people are speaking now.

I understand the oligarchies resistance and confusion because we gave them the keys to the castle a long time ago. We elected so many corrupt politicians who have skewed the game by changing laws and deregulating or allowing "self-regulation" (what a disappointing joke that turned out to be). Our representatives favor the corporate power structure. The temptation was too rich and the opportunities too obvious and it's just the way human nature works sometimes.

Before we, as a society, become anymore czarist, let the people speak. Let the people be heard.

It is a long and arduous process to find their message. They are doing this by consensus and we haven't seen anything done by a genuine honest consensus in a long time. They don't teach this stuff in business school. But the Senate and Congress have not worked efficiently to change things for the better any quicker.

The people who think they are in charge need to sit back down and listen. No matter how long it takes or how creepy it looks or how bad it smells. It's not much different than giving birth, only this is a birth of new thought. It will be painful and dangerous at times and not everyone will promptly accept the new born-- some will call it a bastard. It makes it no less of a life.

They want a focus, focus on this: Step back. Let the people work this out peacefully.

The 53% is missing 100% of the point

2011-10-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

I am not going to take this 53% thing too seriously (file it right next to the 9-9-9 plan). The guy is doing it just to be contrarian. He has nothing to hold up but his silly ideal of a crappy life.

Erick Erickson started this movement by holding a handwritten sign that says:

I work 3 jobs. I have a house I can’t sell. My family insurance costs are outrageous. But I don’t blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners. I am the 53% subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain.

That sucks.

He works three jobs. He can't afford a house that he can't sell. His insurance costs are almost prohibitive (but that's where those three jobs come in handy). And he "doesn't blame Wall Street." His advise to the rest of us is to "suck it up."

He's a bloody fool if he doesn't see the connection between his lousy life and the legal corruption on Wall Street.

Go and follow him at your own risk.

Occupy LA

2011-10-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

I stopped in on the peaceful protest in downtown LA today. It is absolutely peaceful. It is laid-back, LA style. Very well organized (lots of people walking around with clip boards so they must know what they're doing). There are port-o-potties (which is something that was missing in NY, which might have caused some problems). There is a first aid station, food, water, constant talking in small groups (and more people with clip boards taking notes).

I saw mostly white people, 30-40 yrs old who are actually sleeping there (there are rows and rows of tents. Really nice tents--like Eddie Bauer and Coleman tents). They may be taking shifts staying in tents. I expect there are a few masters degrees in the crowd.

Do not confuse this tent city with the other tent city in downtown where the people who sleep on the streets are not there by choice.

At this tent city, the message is still a bit broad--but they are clearly in the process of peacefully forming a more focused mission. Short of having corporate sponsors, I did not get the idea that this was an anti-corporate or anti-wealth group. This is much more about addressing the inequities in the system and lessening the corporate stranglehold on our democratic process. A true democracy is built around the people, for the people, by the people. And these people are taking back the democracy.

I did not get the feeling that these people had no other place to go or nothing else they could be doing. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of them slipping away for a relaxing beer or wine or something like that at the Redwood or the Biltmore. They are in this to make things change.

Police are mellow, they have road blocks up. I'm sure the FBI is up on the surrounding roof tops snapping photos, taking notes. Here are a few shots I took. I didn't think to look up at the adjacent rooftops-- I don't really care.

Enjoy. Engage.

excerpt from Morris Kight Biography

2011-06-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

A personal note to the reader: There are too many words, too many words to describe one man and his life—that’s what I’ve been wrestling with lately. And that’s why you haven’t heard from me. I’m doing my due-diligence on the Morris Kight story as far as research goes and to give the man a proper analysis. I’m doing the writing and it will get done. There is just so much. That is why he makes for a good subject.

Well, I have to get some of this stuff off my desk, so to speak. In that effort, I will share with you some of the Kight stories – some anecdotes that I’ve found particularly interesting. The Gay Liberation Front, for me, created some of the most exciting stories, perhaps because it was a time that was ripe with cultural and political revolution. The GLF is where all the forces for a better country collided—and not always in harmony. The Black Rights movement, the women’s movement, the anti-war movement, the farm worker’s labor movement, the nascent ecology movement, all happened on the heels of hippie love and a sexual revolution with students uprising over everything, and J. Edgar worked overtime. It seems, with the benefit of hindsight, that the country was geared up for gay liberation. I also like the GLF tales because they accomplished a lot—on many different levels. The GLF folks, to me, were true revolutionaries. So many changes were happening at the same time—culturally and civically that people couldn’t keep up. It was their demonstrations, large calls-to-action and some small, personal behaviors (at the time, it was radical to hold hands in public), that enabled the GLF to introduce mainstream America to homosexuals—and first impressions counted.

At some point in between the time of my last phone call with Morris Kight, which was the day before he died in January 2003, and where I sit today I realized and came to accept that this book can not please everyone. Morris Kight didn’t please everyone and he didn’t care. I am more sensitive than he, but I accept this for what it is.

In the early gay movement, demonstrations were called zaps. Today, I have chosen to tell you about one of the many zaps, a questionably more successful GLF demonstration that ultimately put the gay liberation movement at America’s dinner table, via the evening news.

Excerpt from:

Morris Kight: Gay Liberationist

Brother Don had a Dream

“Brother Don has a Dream,” so went the headline of the two-page press release, which appeared in its entirety in the Los Angeles Free Press on August 14, 1970. Don Jackson wrote: "I have a recurring daydream. I imagine a place where gay people can be free."

A sparsely settled, rural area in the Sierra Mountains in Northern California on the Nevada border, Alpine County had a population of slightly more than 400 with 384 eligible voters in the June 1970 election. Jackson first proposed the idea in December 1969 at the Gay Symposium at Sherwood Forest in Berkeley. He reasoned that lesbian and gay folk could quickly become a majority, govern themselves, and “be free at last.” Jackson envisioned a Gay Colony as a "quicker way to freedom."

Kight immediately opposed the entire idea saying that it smacked of "cultural nationalism," separatism, and would reinforce stereotypes posed by the oppressor culture, “I thought they were all crazy. We can’t do that, we can’t go into the country. We’d starve to death. I pooh-poohed it. I didn’t say that publicly. It was just my private thing.” In December 1969 the discussion digressed and pretty much everyone in power at the Gay Symposium agreed that the plan carried the strong possibility of creating a new gay ghetto "rather than breaking down walls."

Don Jackson and many of his friends were fed-up with the oppression from the establishment, they all wanted to go away and just be gay. They still thought it was a good idea. Jackson discreetly proceeded with his plan for a Gay Mecca with a gay government. Less than a year later, Kight was still frustrated by the lack of mainstream media coverage given to the gay movement, despite the GLF’s ethos of “a zap a day.” He rethought his reaction to the Alpine scheme and recognized the potential publicity value.

Kight: “I thought, wait a minute, Don Jackson has a capital idea and we must capitalize on it. So I brought together Jon Vincent Platania, Stanley Williams, and Don Kilhefner. The four of us met over at 1501 North Hoover, next door to KCET-TV and I said, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s take over Alpine County, but don’t. Let’s agree among ourselves that we’ll fake it. That we’re going to be serious, we’ll stare into the camera and we’ll say that we’re taking over Alpine County, we’re creating dah dee dah dah dah.’ And so we held a press conference.” (1989, IMRU for KPFK)

The carefully crafted two-page, single-spaced press release cited “a county in California where 200 gays would constitute a majority of registered voters,” and that 479 homosexuals had already signed up to move to Alpine County. After the required 90-day residency, their plan was to demand a special election, vote out all the elected officials and occupy every office, including judge, sheriff, and supervisors—with homosexuals. “After the elections, they would make use of the $2 million the county receives annually from state and federal sources.”

Jon Platania: “People were just homophobic enough to believe and fear it. We made flyers saying, “Come to Alpine County, the new Gay Mecca.”

Harry Kaplan: “There was a great debate going on at the time about whether we should try to separate ourselves as homosexuals from the oppressive rule of straight society and form our own social unit both politically and geographically.”

Years later, Kight still laughed when recalling his press conference to say, “That the Gay Liberation Front of Los Angeles has met and has voted among ourselves (unanimously, we might add), to take over Alpine County. Very quickly we have recruited pioneers all ready to move and very quickly we expect to move there and establish homes, a university, the first American Lesbian and Gay university where we will teach gay studies. We expect to have farms and ranches and craft shops and we expect to be a citadel of intellectual and activist activity of the part of the lesbian gay community. The following morning there was NBC, with one of their famous reporters standing on a piece of land in Alpine County saying, ‘I’m standing on the land which has been bought by the Gay Liberation Front. It is here where they are going to build their homes.’ And I thought, ‘Good grief, if he can tell that big a lie, I feel less of a liar than him.’ So then, we just held a daily press conference.”

It was a media coup. By mid-October 1970 the United Press International (UPI) and Associated Press (AP) picked up the story which drew national attention. Over a hundred local and city newspapers and radio stations covered the Alpine County story, including the one outlet whose refusal to report about gay liberation irritated Kight the most-- the Los Angeles Times.

“Gay Front move worries Alpine County,” was one headline. Genuine concern from the Alpine-powers-that-were-in-office was expressed. “Naturally,” the chairman of the board of supervisors was quoted, “We’ll do anything and everything we can to prevent anyone taking over our county.” According to the Bedford Gazette in Pennsylvania Alpine County’s “top elected officials” said that “residents will resist a possible political takeover by the Gay Liberation Front.” A week later, after a few behind closed door meetings with city officials and a legal affairs secretary to Governor Ronald Reagan, the same officials were quoted in a different Pennsylvania newspaper (Lebanon Daily News), “There is no way to prevent hundreds of homosexuals from becoming residents and laying the groundwork for a political takeover. If these people come up and abide by the laws there’s nothing we can do to prevent them from becoming residents.”

Gays and straights were taking the scam seriously. Many lesbians and gays began to organize around it, making plans to uproot their lives and relocate to the region where summers are ninety days and the snow falls twenty-five feet deep.

Howard Fox: “Alpine County, which is really a god forsaken place, not too far from Lake Tahoe, it’s a ski resort at times, it’s just freezing and no place anybody gay would want to live. But we carried forth with this whole sham. And Morris was giving press reports about how ‘the penetration of Alpine County had commenced.’”

The momentum of the scheme was buoyed by the comedy. Kight’s natural humor helped to relieve tension as well as get attention.

Carolyn Weathers: “We, the gays and lesbians were going take over Alpine County. We were going to be like the pioneers in the covered wagons. And of course, there was all this brouhaha…we, the Gay Liberation Front were running around [handing out] these buttons saying ‘Alpine County or Bust.’ People took it up as a great idea. There'd be a guy at GLF sewing blankets and quilts and people were sending food supplies and all this for when we took over Alpine County. [My sister] Brenda thought that actually it was never meant to be, in other words, it was just agitation propaganda to get attention and to further the cause. They never intended for us to really do it, but it got its own momentum. That doesn’t mean it wasn't a great idea. Many people took it seriously.”

Gay people were quitting their jobs, putting their homes on the market and getting ready to put down deposits on property in Alpine County.

Del Whan: “Morris cooked up the takeover scheme of Alpine County as a publicity stunt, agit-prop to get the media attention and bring GLF to public attention. Many gay people took the plan to set up a Gay County seriously, however, and were very upset when they eventually realized that Morris was just making waves to stir up public attention for gay civil rights.”

Meanwhile, the Berkeley and San Francisco gay libbers, where Don Jackson was based, were fully engaged in promoting the takeover of Alpine. A long time activist known as Mother Boats, Vice President of Sexual Freedom League, was promoting the Alpine Liberation Front in the Bay Area at meetings and with a series of editorials in the Berkeley Barb. No one from Los Angeles told their Northern California counterparts that it was an agitprop joke. Jeff Poland and Don Jackson kept in almost daily contact with Kight.

Jackson was thrilled that Kight had taken up his cause and he got caught up in the hoopla. He was genuinely excited and inspired by the possibility of a Gay Colony. He wrote to Kight almost daily with his updates and latest ideas, “Events have changed my concept of what Alpine will be. It has grown into a bigger issue than just Gay Lib or even just Gays. Now, I visualize it as a liberated territory, a bastion of liberty in the statist sea, based on the basic libertarian doctrine that a person has a right to do anything he wishes so long as he doesn’t harm anyone else…I think the name of our organization should be ‘the Alpine Liberation Front.’ It is better than Alpine Mobilization Committee. I visualize it growing into a national organization.” And “I know it will be a big strain on you, but the Alpine Mobilization may be the biggest accomplishment of your life.”

The scheme was quickly getting out of control. Kight was having a ball and couldn’t let it just slip away without one more final push. He was quoted in the news constantly:

“Morris Kight told newsmen Wednesday about a dozen of the GLF members would be on the steps of the [Alpine County] courthouse. ‘On Friday we hope to meet with the power structure—the sheriff, the chairman of the board and postmistress. Our goal is to have 600 located in the county by June 28, 1971.’ Kight said the GLF owns a small tract of land in the area and has options on other property. ‘The Washoe Indians have a private alliance with us,’ he said, ‘and we have a 5-to-20 year plan to preserve the environment of Alpine County.’”

Mother Boats in Berkeley Barb: “Gay Liberation is somewhat embarrassed at their omission of the Washoes from their plans to liberate Alpine. A ‘faulty intelligence report,’ based on typically racist establishment records, caused the mistake.”

Jeff Poland of the Berkeley groups wrote a note to Kight regarding the above: “Dear Morris—We haven’t actually contacted any Indian groups yet (Boats too busy with nude Halloween dance), but this clipping should show them [the Native Americans] how we feel.”

A note to ‘the file’ in Kight’s handwriting, dated November 12, 1970: “With tongue-in-cheek [heavily underlined]: Do you think the splendid (future) success of the Alpine County project will cause the U.S. government to send all gay people to Alpine County as a ‘reservation?’”

Years later, Kight to Bob Dallmeyer:

“Thanksgiving Day 1970, June Hurrle, Steve Morrison Beckwith [and Rob Gibson] wanted to have a holiday in the country, so they thought they’d go to Alpine County. So they packed picnic lunches and we sent gifts for the natives. There is an Indian family in Alpine County and we sent gifts from gay people, ‘giving to our spiritual brothers and sisters’ gifts.”

A caravan of GLF members from Los Angeles made its way to Alpine County. Two men and a woman from the GLF-LA who posed for photographs in front of the Alpine courthouse were introduced as an advance party to “scout conditions for a planned takeover.” (Times Reporter, Dover, Ohio).

Kight made sure everything was in their favor. Timing the trip to Alpine for Thanksgiving weekend was not coincidental. Holidays are traditionally ‘slow news days,’ and there was a better chance for coverage. In addition to exercising his media savvy, Kight’s natural radar for infiltrators went off.

Kight to Dallmeyer: “In the meantime, we had been infiltrated by an FBI agent, who thought we might really be about to take over the government and he wanted to go along. I said, ‘You’re welcome to, we welcome everybody. I tell you what you do, there is a pay phone on the main drag in Markleeville [main town in Alpine]. You go there and commandeer the phone, and we’ll use that as our method of communicating with our troops.’’

In retelling the story, Kight over-dramatized the set up. He was not physically in Alpine County but navigated two major events that same weekend from his home phone—coordinating all efforts with the media. [This was the same weekend that a contingent from the LA GLF drove to Washington DC to represent gay liberation at The Black Panthers People’s Revolutionary Constitutional Convention).

Kight: “So here was this FBI agent with the phone, ‘Hi, NBC, just a moment here is Mister Morris Kight,’ and for three days he was there staffing the phone. And we were using his good offices, FBI has more and better equipment than we have, they have more trucks and everything than we have. Then Steve, June, and Rob had their picnic lunch on the steps of the Alpine County courthouse, munching away.”

Howard Fox: “Because it was Thanksgiving Day there was no news, so the networks sent crews to photograph them live from Alpine County. This story made news for weeks and weeks throughout the world. Time Magazine wanted to interview us…We told them that we are doing what Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew have told us to do—that if you are unhappy with the system, use your votes to bring about change. And we were doing this by peaceful means. This was the American way. It was wonderful.”

An entire GLF business meeting was dedicated to the Alpine County takeover. Kepner has copious notes including detailed short-term and long-term outlined plans. They had plans for sponsors (“Ask First Unitarian Church to sponsor this and ask other liberal churches to cosponsor it as a Gay organization.”), Legal defense, election coalition strategy, and they even asked themselves: “What are our legal & moral responsibilities to people already there?”

Letter to Kight from Craig Hansen (Oct 22, 1970): “Alpine County takeover has really caused a ruckus. Why? GLF has done a lot of crazy things which deserved news before and received the silent treatment from the Establishment media. I believe the reason is that we have threatened straight America. We are taking over! We3 could take all the gay bars in town, and nothing would be said; but take a county with 300 people and straight America goes outa mind! If GLF wants news it has the tool. Anything which looks like a threat to straight society will get news. P.S. Alpine County is very cold in the winter. There may be places in Nevada or elsewhere with even fewer people and a nicer climate.”

This was by far Kight's biggest and most public rouse. Kight was quickly earning a reputation as a practical joker, a bit of a con man, and also as someone who could get things done.

A mid-November report in a Placerville, California newspaper said that “The ‘gay people’ simply haven’t reckoned with what they might run into if they go through with their plans. The Alpine county people, including the members of the Indian tribes, don’t look upon the idea with much favor and they are preparing to cope with it, calmly, coolly and with determination.”

At some point, Kight contacted the Alpine County sheriff, once again introducing himself as a representative of the Gay Liberation Front. Kight suggested they conduct a town meeting to create “a truce session with the county’s residents.” The sheriff outright rejected the offer.

By mid-December, weather in the high Sierras was quite harsh and no one from Southern California, GLF or otherwise, would be found in Alpine County after the temperatures slid down to 15 degrees. “The windy weather,” the sheriff pointed out in newspaper interviews, “was not conducive to visitors.” The sheriff felt “the gays have been defeated and repelled.” He added, “They have no organization in Los Angeles but a few leaders making a few bucks off a few suckers,” adding that the leaders of the Front were “known radicals.” The sheriff acknowledged that there might be another “offense in the spring,” and “It would take millions of dollars to even house them here.” And a final jab from the sheriff: “There’s deep white snow on the ground and the icicles are two feet long—Alpine County is a virtual fairyland, but not the kind they want.”

Eventually confusion overshadowed excitement. In December 1970, Kight received a three-page typed letter from his friend Reverend Itkin asking, in the nicest terms possible, “out of the spirit of warmest friendship for you,” for ideological clarity on why Kight chose to support the Alpine County project, reminding him that, “Cultural nationalism, by its very nature, is counter-revolutionary.” Itkin was understandably concerned because originally Kight was vocally opposed to the entire idea. “We were,” Itkin wrote, “at that [previous] time, in perfect agreement.”

An anonymous letter to Kight (November 1970) from someone called “A Soul Brother,” began, “If the GLF was actually serious about founding a homosexual nation in Alpine County, why in hell did it release the story to the news media in October, months before effective legal action would be taken?” The letter writer goes on to say, “The Gays have opened a Pandora’s Box for every minority in the country…If the move has only propaganda value, and could never be practical, then it has great value indeed. If, however, it is practical, and a voting majority could be supported there by outside funds from gays all over the U.S…then the strategy has been handled abominably. The poor slobs in Alpine County, and millions of straights everywhere are convinced that this sinister, powerful, well-organized underground is as threatening as the Mafia or the Communist Party…It makes me laugh.”

Kight: “Then it was time to blow the bubble. We announced that our forces had grown too large and Alpine County simply wouldn’t hold us and we were moving on to somewhere else. And we gradually killed the story off.”

He made up a story that “real estate agents returned deposits on property when they discovered that the prospective buyers were homosexuals.”

Within days, UPI and AP were reporting Alpine County’s “Victory over homosexuals.” Mid-December mainstream news headlines began to read: “Gay Front Delaying Invasion,” quoting Kight, “‘We’ll have to take the real estate agents to court on a civil liberties issue just like the blacks did in the South—because we’re an ethnic minority, too.’ Kight, 51, a former hotel operator who says he ‘dropped out’ 10 years ago to organize against sexism, poverty and racism, said the planned migration to Alpine will attract about 1,070 ‘pioneers.’

“‘The earliest possible date for the migration will be sometime next spring if the courts clear the way for homosexuals to purchase Alpine County property,’ Kight said.”

In the spring of 1971, UPI reported, in usual Kight humor: “New site eyed by Gay Front,” naming Bankhead Springs, a 224-acre town just east of San Diego, as the new target for the Gay Liberation Front. The article said that real estate inquires were made by “the homosexual group,” and that if the purchases happened, “the town would be exclusively for homosexuals. It would be called Mt. Love and would be divided into 1,000 quarter-acre lots.”

As late as August and September 1971, newspaper reports continued across the country regarding the Gay Liberation Invasion of Alpine County. “Markleeville has only about 125 people and they bristled with some old powder-and-ball anger and resolution when the ‘invasion’ was threatened.” Several committees were formed and plots and plans were put into place to ward off the takeover, and several offers from all over the world were received to help on the “gay” problem, but officials from Alpine County credited the “carnivorous mosquitoes (so large they sometimes bark)” and the harsh winters as the final discouragement to the Front people. The county’s sheriff said “the mosquitoes attacked some naked Front people and hippies with vigor at the surrounding lakes and streams, and the cold penetrated deep in the bones of the unwanted visitors.”

A huge publicity success for the gay movement, it did not boost Kight’s standing among his peers. Kight didn’t want to risk ruining the scheme if he let Jackson in on his real intention to use Alpine County solely as an agitation and propaganda tool. Jackson had been sending Kight typed letters all along, keeping the Bay Area press alerted as Kight instructed, often stroking the older man’s ego: “I gave the Chronicle your phone number. The people giving interviews should be rotated. The young longhairs are best for relating to the younger Gay Lib types, but you do some of the interviews to give dignity to the project. Your name won’t have to appear in the press very many more times before you are listed in ‘Who’s Who.’ When the actual invasion occurs there are going to be around 300 reporters and photographers to add on to the immigrants.”

Their relationship never recovered from the betrayal that Jackson experienced when Kight backed away from the Alpine dream. It achieved what Kight set out to achieve—worldwide coverage of gay liberation. In mid-1971, Kight wrote: “A vast number of stations have all but ignored our existence, except the recent ‘Alpine County’ news story which was covered well.” Gay liberation could no longer be ignored by the establishment and it was slowly becoming a topic of conversation in American homes.

Platania: “That is what makes Morris the ultimate trickster. He was a man of spirit, politically sophisticated, outraged, outrageous, and maligned.”

People not familiar with his abstract thinking could easily confuse his antics as mean-spirited or self serving. Certainly, many of his detractors were quick to note, and often, that Kight received as much press attention as gay liberation. The confusion continued for years: was it a joke, was it a genuine effort that backfired; was it a joke on gay people or a joke by gay people? What was clear to all the critics was that Morris Kight’s name appeared in every press release. What wasn’t clear to the common observer was that until Kight became involved, there were no press releases-- he initiated writing press releases for the cause. He crafted a strategy and drove it like an eighteen wheeler truck to bring gay liberation into the consciousness of America. It wasn’t always delicate. Other leaders of the movement partook in the sham, yet all responsibility for the collapse of Don Jackson’s dream was placed heavily and solely on Kight. The wide and unprecedented media coverage wasn’t always appreciated for the great triumph that it indeed was for the movement.

Even though it sealed his reputation as being stubborn and self-aggrandizing, Kight saw the Alpine County zap as a huge success. New York activists were appropriately impressed with the amount of attention it garnered; Alpine County received far wider press coverage than the rebellion at the Stonewall Inn. The crazy idea stirred discussions about civil liberties and the constitutional rights of homosexuals. Whatever his intentions, for better or for worse, the Alpine County demonstration would follow him for the rest of his life—for better and for worse. Years later, regarding a completely different disagreement, Jim Kepner wrote “[Kight] almost singlehandedly scuttled the Alpine dream (perhaps too impractical from the start) even while strutting before the press and TV cameras as its leader.”

In typical Kight manner and following his advice to all the younger members of the GLF, he never responded to the criticism.

Excerpt from:

Morris Kight: Gay Liberationist

cut the flesh before you get to the bone

2011-02-19T12:41:00.001-08:00

It is not likely that the Federal deficit was caused by all that frivolous spending on Planned Parenthood, or education, or health costs. The deficit was caused by poor management, plain and simple. The health of our nation depends upon healthy fiscal roots and simply put: we got root rot.

It is the definition of hubris to cut 60 billion dollars in funds to the most needy while maintaining the same salaries for our representatives. I'm calling for a ten percent cut in all salaries to elected officials across the nation. They can do what they want to their appointed fellows. What are they going to do? Get elected somewhere else where they have higher pay?

Have we learned nothing from Cairo? Are we not paying attention to what is happening in Bahrain and most especially what our fellow working-class citizens are doing in Madison, WI. The Governor of Wisconsin remains "unfazed" by the protests. Of course he is unfazed--he doesn't give a flying bee about the working class.

I will say this again, and probably again, management needs a functioning proletariat.

There will be more on this.

UNhappy Anniversary

2011-01-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

One year ago today the Edward's Supreme Court decided a fateful ruling in Citizens United which eliminated all restrictions on corporate spending in elections. Basically, the frightfully right-wing court sold out the soul of our democracy: fair elections.

Here's a question for the court: if the constitution guarantees one vote per citizen-- how do shareholders of multiple corporations have their best interests represented multiple times by their corporate interests? Not only is it not fair, it is not a way to operate a democracy.

We need to stop this. New information just reached the surface that Justices Scalia and Thomas had, at the time of the ruling and still to this day, conflicts of interest that should have demanded they recuse themselves from ruling. Scalia and Thomas! They each took oaths to uphold the constitution--not sell it out to the highest bidders of their choosing.

Scalia and Thomas have been featured guests at secretive political strategy sessions sponsored by Koch Industries, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that has invested millions of dollars in political campaigns and causes. Koch Industries was a major beneficiary of the Citizens United decision, which overturned long-established law to permit corporations to spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy.

Please take action. Here is a petition, a request, to the Justice Department to do a full investigation of this maleficence of justice.

Enjoy your day. Don't celebrate this occasion. Celebrate yourself for taking action to restore sanity to the highest court in our land.

Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us

2010-12-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

This time of year is designed to be stressful and hence at least a tad disappointing. In addition to all the year-end bookkeeping duties that anyone who pays taxes is too familiar with, we have overburdened ourselves with a competitive, consumerist mindset that could make the Pharaohs blush. It's nonsense. It doesn't really matter. I have discovered that most people of substance prefer time spent creating happy memories.

Time, that is the commodity. Happy memories are the rewards.

A writer for the famed 90s TV Show, "Seinfeld," Dan O'Keefe adapted a script for the half-hour sitcom from a tradition started by his father Daniel O'Keefe. The father O'Keefe discovered the Festivus holiday in a 1966 book about obscure holidays. Now, I don't promote the "airing of grievances" as a holiday tradition nor would I partake in the after dinner "feats of strength," as practiced in the fictional Costanza household. I do however encourage finding your own way to celebrate. Celebrate what you feel in your heart (and sometimes the work is in finding a feeling in your heart) with who you enjoy.

I applaud O'Keefe's idea to step outside the box and to unleash the chains of traditions. Reexamine your habits and values and adjust what simply doesn't work. If you can do nothing else, be brave with your own life.

Don't cave to societal pressures to spend what you can not afford or do what you resent or even to be anyplace where your heart is not safe and open. I know this from experience. It is a lovely thing to be free. It is a fine day to be where I want to be and where I am wanted; and to appreciate the experiences that taught me the value in that. I know the painful differences.

Continued blessings to us all.

PS - I just came across this lovely piece from The Christian Science Monitor (by way of Yahoo News) with some simple, common sense down-home advise on staying sane and emotionally healthy all year round:

"Psychologists have found that happiness is positively linked to social connections that are substantial, not superficial. At a time when resources are scarce, we need to tap into a resource we already have in abundance: ourselves."

I repeat: substantial, not superficial. We find what we seek. We seek what we are. We are our relationships.

Traveling to New Orleans?

2010-12-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

When I think of New Orleans, I think music, food, fun, and some of the greats of American literature. Check out Louis' literary pub crawl (it's a tour of sorts). And please let us know what you think.

thanks for the love. Stay safe out there in the holidaze madness.

What Morris Kight thought it might be like in 2010

2010-11-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

In a 1976 radio interview with Jonathan N. Katz (this Jonathan Katz NOT that Jonathan Katz), Morris Kight said:

"By the year 2010 the population will have doubled. If you believe that we're doing a lousy job now think what it'll be like with the decline of fossil fuel, deterioration of air and water, world wide wars. A lot of troubles are coming. Society can be conned into believing a lot of lies. Gays as sick or sinful is a lie. There are a lot of other lies."

As much as Kight loved being right, I can't imagine he'd be too happy about being this right.

Congratulations to all who voted

2010-11-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Another election season over. California did right by the blues and rest of the country was given back to the reds. If all is fair in love and war, than it's even more fair in an elected government. We need to sit tight and let the people do their jobs.

Representatives from the tea party have been in office for less than 48 hours and they aren't complaining about Obama--yet.

Prop 19, though it didn't pass it proved that there are at least 47% of voters in favor of legalizing personal use of cannabis. This has propelled the conversation forward in a huge way. Recently, while going through some newspapers from 1970, I found a number of editorials calling for the death penalty for pot use. So, this may not be the prize we hoped for--but it is huge progress. Don't discount that and know that the initiative will be back on the ballot.

Interesting note about Prop 19, it didn't win Humboldt County. Humboldt is the growing capital of the world for cannabis. It is big business and family business in those parts and those folk scrutinized this bill. Tells me, they didn't like the taxing aspect and that it was, in fact, a poorly written initiative.

Meg-a-bucks Whittman was told by the California voters what she can do with her almost 150 million dollars. These were obscene amounts of money spent on this election, but Meg outdid all. It's obscene because of the number of folk standing in food lines and sleeping on the streets. She couldn't fix the world with her money anymore that she'd fix California with her "business expertise."

Glad to see Carly go away.

And oh so glad that California told those two Texas gazillionares what they can do with their oil. There was a loud shout of "No on 23" heard throughout the state.

Game on.

Vote!

2010-10-21T22:09:00.000-07:00

November 2 - get prepared, review your sample ballot, know the issues and understand your position. It's your civic duty. This is the only "homework" we really get in life--to effectively participate in our government.

I voted today. I always vote early and vote by mail. I enjoy the process. I spent a little time online this afternoon researching the judicial appointments. Most of these are "yes" or "no" votes (should they be elected to the office). It can be a little complicated. If you live in California, I found a cool website that helps you to "choose your judges," the three Supreme Court Justice choices. It is a system, based upon your personal answers to a short survey, how you would likely vote based upon your values and preferences.

The rest of the judges, you're on your own.

If you're looking for some opposing views on the judges, this site is much more right-leaning than myself, but it's a good comparison and I use this as a "Reality Check," meaning that if this guy is for something then I'm generally not.

For the State Measures, there are some excellent resources with organizations recommendations. My recommendation is for your to check out a few of these, compare them, and then check your own conscience and vote the way you truly want to see the world operate.

League of Women Voters go over the Measure quite thoroughly, you can get a lay-man's understanding of the issues and the impacts.

Go beyond your comfort level a little this time. I am a big proponent of dismantling the two-party system and we'll do that not by creating a three-party system. We'll dismantle the two-party system by not supporting the parties. Support the candidate, the idea, the value system, support the hair cut if you must. But be willing to see beyond your party lines.

The most important thing is- Vote.

Los Angeles Irish Film Festival

2010-10-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

Thursday, the last day of September 2010, was a huge successful festive kick-off to the fourth LA Irish Film Festival at the new location for the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences (on Vine Street in Hollywood).

The festival kicked off with two rare silent films, great finds from the archives, with an original musical composition by the extremely talented Eimear Noone. From 1914 is a film about the story (one of the many stories) of Ireland's fight for independence using patriot Father Tom Murphy, who had a price on his head, and the famed Irish leader (depending upon who you talk to) Robert Emmet. Included is news footage from the day that included a piece with the big man himself, Michael Collins. the second silent film, with an original composition by Noone, was the very funny "William Rogers in Dublin," from the American Cowboy's trip to the city in 1927. It was most likely Rogers who, unwittingly, set a precedent for teasing the Irish just for being Irish.

The festival was off to a successful start and officially began with the contemporary dramady (a word the Irish probably detest), "Pierre's Bounty." Unfortunately, it won't get a wide release in the States but will be available on DVD. It's funny, it's unpredictable, and it has the ever so good Jim Broadbent.

Followed by cheer and regalia till sometime in the early hours of the first day of October, 'twas a good start to a weekend of talent and cheer.

I was back for the closing night (I prefer to bookend these kinds of things) at the Aero Theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. The documentary, "BallyBrando," about the making (or the monumental unmaking) of a film "Divine Rapture," that had begun filming in Ballycotton in 1995 starring Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, Debra Winger, and John Hurt. After 10 days of filming in the small Irish village, the movie came crashing down on everyone's hopes when the young producer, Barry Navidi, found out that he'd been "had," and the escrow account that contained all the production monies was a fraud. some of the best interviews include the village locals who entertained and boarded the American interlopers, only too briefly. Brando's cook said, that Brando told her that Ireland made him feel "more at home here than anywhere else in the world. It's nice because this was all weeks after the disastrous suicide of his young daughter, Cheyenne. Perhaps the documentary will do what the feature film could not do, put Ballycotton on the motion picture map. If you ever had the opportunity to see this documentary, see it.

Followed by a brief Colin Devlin set on his acoustic and electric guitars. Good stuff.

The festival closed with a screening of the 1990 film, "The Field," starring Richard Harris and, once again, John Hurt (can't really get enough of John Hurt). "The Field," is a poignant, yet sad, tale of an Irishman and his field and an American interloper coming back "to find his roots," as the locals sneer. This Ireland at its most heartbreaking, depressing, and it's what gives them a reason to drink. Jim Sheridan, the film's director, was at the last minute unable to make the evening. He was supposed to conduct a tribute to Richard Harris by way of interviewing Harris' three grown sons, Jared, Damian, and Jamie (and his grandson joined them on stage but I didn't catch the young boy's name). Middle son Damian was a bit snarly and wouldn't take the bloody gum out of his mouth as he spoke. All three work in the film industry, to varying degrees of success. Their talk, moderated by Paul Quinn, was unfocused and did little to enlighten anyone but to the fact that as children these boys met a lot of famous people. One of the brother's began with, "well, my step father is Rex Harrison," and that pretty much began the litany of names dropping.

A reception followed across the street from the Aero at EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY (a children's book and art store). They kindly opened their doors for us as their first public opening.

The series was compiled by Lisa McLaughlin-Strassman (who also uncovered the two silent films that opened the weekend) and Juli C. Lasselle. Gwen Deglise assisted. Rachele Rath, my new friend, organized the voluteers.

Any day is a good day to be Irish, but this was the best weekend to be Irish in Los Angeles. Thank you to the Irish Film Board for keeping their doors open in these economically challenging times and for funding some of the best artists in the world. I felt like I was in the middle of the Saudi Arabia of Northern Europe--there is an oil well of talent yet to be found.

Blessings to all!

Fagots Stay Out

2010-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

This is the sign that hung in a neighborhood bar in West Hollywood from the mid-fifties to 1970. This is how Morris Kight tells the story:

"This sign was a great catalyst for the gay movement. In spring of 1970 we did a change-in, sit-in, shop in, boycott and picket. It took all that to persuade [the owner] to surrender us the sign and to never discriminate again in employment or service."

The pickets went on for months and in an unusual twist for the times the LA County Sheriff's were on the side of the demonstrators. Especially odd since the sign went up in the fifties when the Sheriff's Department warned the owner that his place was picking up "a reputation."

So the the sign came down in 1970 and became a central piece in the Morris Kight Collection. The new owner of the place (escrow hadn't even closed when the demonstrations began) enjoyed the free publicity that the sign (and the demonstrations) generated that he scrawled out a new fagots stay out sign (questionable spelling and all). That sign would get taken down and put back up over the years. At one point, he even had it match books printed. Finally, West Hollywood incorporated in 1984 and the very first thing the newly elected mayor did was to march into the bar and demand that that sign come down and that discrimination against homosexuals would no longer be tolerated.

Washington D.C., did you hear that?

9/11 12,13,14...

2010-09-11T19:28:00.000-07:00

And life goes on. It's different, sure. Those who are eager to pontificate will ask, 'what did we learn?' Well, we learned that there are no weapons of mass destruction--other than our own imaginations. But I'm not certain everyone of us learned that.

Our 9/11 memorializing has turned into "angry protests." We are set upon ourselves. We are determined not to get along. We, human beings, always return to a pattern of isolating a group of individuals for being a certain way. It's a pattern since long before WWII and Nazi Germany. Humans need to hold themselves above other humans. It's odd when you stand back and simply observe the behavior. I recently came across the Dr. Martin Niemeller poem, First they came:

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up.

Dr. Niemeller, a German theologian and a Lutheran pastor, anti-Nazi, wrote that poem sometime around 1955 (there are disputes over the exact time of writing and the exact wording)
years after WWII ended. Today, I'm so sorry to say, we'd have to add a line about Muslims. What we, the collective American bargaining-away-civil-liberties We, are saying is that they--simply because they are Muslim--are not afforded equal opportunity because of who they are. This is race bait. We treat them differently, like bogeymen, simply because they are not like us. There is no proof that the iman or anyone involved with the "Cultural Center," is a terrorist, is associated with terrorist activities, or will harbor and train and provide seven lucky virgins for every terrorist in America.

And there were NO weapons of mass destruction.

People are saying it's an issue of "sensitivity." Yes, sensitive to all races and creeds. It's in the constitution--not in those exact words but certainly in the spirit of "being sensitive."

The owner of the property sited for an Islamic Cultural Center did not accept Trumps offer of 25% over what he paid for it. Yeah, yeah it's trump tooting his horn again but there is some legitimacy to the idea that this is not about money for the Muslim community. Does that make sense to anyone else?

This is about the bigger principles upon which we lean everyday. If this country wants to tout freedom of religion, then we need to exercise tolerance.

What I'd like to see--maybe this could work out--if the Muslim community behind the Cultural Center would extend an area, a space to share all religions. A place where every person who was killed in the Towers that day will be represented through their religion.

And then watch the bigots shout and go at each other.

Baked

2010-08-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

Mark Haskell Smith has just released his third novel, Baked. It was the perfect summer detour for me having been hugging the non-fiction for the past few years for the Kight biography. Baked took me on a ride through the marijuana industry (and make no mistake about it folks--it is an industry), introduced me to a stray Mormon, some (new) kinky sex tricks, and inside the head of an LAPD detective desperately in need of a vacation.

I've been so wrapped up in piecing together a non-fiction story, the life of Morris Kight, that I may have forgotten the joy of writing for the sake of the joy of writing. Haskell Smith gently reminded me of what I've been missing.

I wish Mark Haskell Smith all the success in the world with Baked.

Now back to my regularly scheduled input/output. But I'll be blogging more.

a win for the little guy

2010-06-02T20:09:00.000-07:00

This is kind of old news, for me, but it's getting a little attention now so I may as well fan the flames. The facts are a little mixed up in Bob's blog. the fact is I won three separate claims in small claims court against Burger King for harm caused by their blatant disregard for noise control laws. Specifically, they disregarded laws that prohibit construction from beginning before 7AM on weekdays, before 8AM on Saturdays, and "never ever on Sundays." That's a direct quote from the law.

"The law" that Burger King corporate and franchise owners feel they are above or immune from the consequences of the law. And generally speaking they probably are, except in the case when they disturbed this hard-working gal once too often and when the construction began, it was way too violent. It was a protracted battle compounded by their abuse of the drive thru window speaker box that went off from 6AM to 2AM on weekends. Come on, even renters have a right to a good sleep.

Dealing direct with the franchise owner was unfulfilled, they couldn't even say "sorry." So I thought about and thought about it and came up with a good plan of counter-attack. Out of the 8 days of being woken up by their construction noise, I picked the 3 most egregious (2 Saturdays and a Sunday) and file three separate claims, one for each day, to compensate for the consequences of them breaking the law. I won.

It's worth it. If you feel wronged by an entity that seems too big to lose--take action. Even if I didn't win the money, it was nice to be heard in a court and watch the judges look of disgust as he questioned "the defendant" as to why this happened. The answer was vague. But my petition was very clear.

You can win too.

Thank you to Neighbors from Hell dot com for the encouragement and to Bob for the kind words.

I haven't evaporated

2010-03-10T21:15:00.001-08:00

Just incredibly busy. I'll have something to say soon.

Moving Money

2010-03-03T18:19:00.001-08:00

I have no idea what happened to the previous link, but here it is again. And here is more information on the whole Move Your Money movement that is taking place.

Do what you want with your money. It's yours. I'm not selling you anything either. But please don't sit back and say there is nothing that you can do about the mammoth banks control over everything. Stand up and say, no thanks!

What can you do?

2010-01-29T23:32:00.000-08:00

Move Your Money

Join the Sea Change

Move your money to an institution that will not abuse the privilege.

There Goes More Than Just The Neighborhood!

2010-01-21T16:03:00.000-08:00

Back in September 2009 I tried my best to alert us all to the dangers of the imminent Supreme Court ruling about overturning all limits on corporate spending on campaigns. Well, they gone done it. They reversed the McCain/Feingold law - one of the few things that McCain has done that I really really like.

This is just wrong. It will lead to no good and we can start to pack the wagons now because there is a new sheriff in town and he's a lot bigger than any of us. Welcome to the Corporations of America.

I am so sorry to see us go down in such a shameful, pathetic, greed-dripped, blind-sighted way. I thought better of us. It was probably the WWII generation that I thought better of. But they're gone. This has been a long time in the making, it took a lot of campaign donations to get this particular Supreme Court in place to hear this particular argument of this issue at this specific time in history. Make no mistake about it, this ruling is historical. Hysterical in a macabre sort of way too.

This pendulum will swing slowly so you'll have to pay close attention to follow the consequences of this ruling. The same way that Ronald Reagan's gift of deregulation, beginning in the early 80s, slowly took hold of America's economy before it strangled the very life from it- you may not notice the changes to our elections. Change will come and not for the betterment or the strengthening of the individual voice or in the interest of justice.

My only solution was prevention and that has failed. So I'm open to hear other ideas how the United States of America can return to the original values of human dignity and the pursuit of individual happiness.

Help Wanted at TSA

2010-01-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

The ad said: "TSA screeners wanted." I can do that, I thought. This was way back at the very beginning of the creation of the TSA. I needed a job and they needed a good pair of eyes, or so I thought. The online application for the federal position was easy, straightforward, very short. I received an immediate e-mail response requesting a testing appointment. I accepted the appointment, marked my schedule, and prepared to become a federal employee.

Or so I thought. The testing location was a small, obscure hotel out by the airport. It didn't say as much because the confirmation e-mail only gave an address. There were no courtesy directions, like "immediately look to your right as you're getting off the exit that you’ll be taking at 35 mph or you’ll miss the hotel." That would have helped a lot. I found the location and rushed up to the check-in area about one minute past my appointment time. I already felt like I had failed the test. A young woman sat behind a makeshift desk talking on the telephone, clearly a personal call. I admit I was a bit pushy. I tried to interrupt her conversation to let her know that I was here to take the test. We could both see the test going on in the next room. She waved her finger to indicate that I would have to wait. I waited. I had my confirmation letter on the makeshift desk. She took my paper and tucked her cell phone between her ear and shoulder blade. That move just never makes sense —to turn one's neck at a 90° angle to say "uh-huh, uh-huh." She perused my letter for a good minute, at an angle, and finally said, into the phone said, "Okay, bye." She removed the cell phone from between her ear and shoulder, but she didn't straighten her head until she looked very closely at my letter and at me and then very slowly ran my "credentials" through the time clock. Oh yes, I had already failed the test.

But I had made it this far and I was going to take that test no matter what. I would let them really regret not being able to hire me because I was one minute past the appointed time and I got off on a bad foot with the junior college student behind the folding table. TSA was going to have to think long and hard before not hiring me.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the testing room was that I was the only Caucasian female. This is not the first time this has happened, but I am curious if federal jobs, federal jobs which hold the security of our nation's transportation system in the palm of its hand, have such a dearth of white women. Just curious. And the next thing I noticed was the test had very little to do with language skills, communication abilities, eyesight, nerves, common sense, or integrity. And yet many of the people in the testing room, all who were taking the test, struggled. That really had me wondering.

Oh sure there were some images on a screen to classify, i.e. cylinder shape or square shape or rectangle or flat. That type of thing. There were no big words like octagon or silhouette. It was very easy and straightforward. Maybe every tenth or fifteenth question was a trick ethics question-something like: "If someone offers to give you directions, are you suspicious?" And the question arose again, slightly rephrased: "if you're lost, and someone offers to help, do you accept the help or do you refuse?"

As the test continued, the ethics/principles questions were more frequent and only every tenth or fifteenth question was a test of logic. I found it odd that there were no questions about focus in times of distractions, about making split second decisions. There was no test of nerve. Perhaps that was the next level before being hired. The ethics questions were not so much about character as personality. They were definitely looking for suspicious, non-critical thinkers, who were good at reading directions. At some point, I sat back, away from the test and considered leaving. This is not a job for me. And yet, I worried who it was for.

"If you are stranded in the desert and a stranger comes along with a bucket of water, do you drink it?" I have no idea what this has to do with viewing and quickly assessing hundreds and hundreds of total strangers, strangers who depend upon you for their safety. And any one of whom could possibly blow us all into a new reality. I don't remember any questions about determining an unsafe situation. I did notice there were no questions about people skills and interviewing styles and assessments. "If a blind elderly woman is about to walk into the crosswalk, do you stop her?" was not a question on the TSA test.

And I’m not saying that that question should be on the testing application for the TSA employees. Janet Napolitano’s problems with security breach did not begin in Newark Airport. Napolitano’s problems are more of the bequeathment from the previous administration. More accurately, TSA’s problems are the bequeathment from a mind-set direct right out of Orwell’s “1984,” and some of these genius’ in this testing room were going to be the water bearers for the oligarchy. And TSA’s problems will become our problems.

I have traveled many times since taking that test that far away afternoon, way the heck out in some tiny crevice of the Los Angeles Airport. I have checked out the TSA employees and quite honestly, I think I observe much more about many of them than any of them observe about me. Fair enough, I’m one in a million. I have observed that there are many Caucasian females in the profession (phew, we can rest now) and that most TSA employees stand straight up for long hours, doing some of the most monotonous tasks ascribed to a job description, in full display of the barefoot and cranky public, and rarely do they look you in the eye. I can not say that I blame them I rarely look anyone in the eye when I travel either. But they aren’t traveling, this is their job and it seems that only now are the powers that be, or the powers that have been, realize the delicacy and importance of this gig. I admit, when I took the test I was looking for a part-time gig that might give me some discounted travel opportunities.

Truth is this job is about national freaking security. And the requirements are to not trust anyone, ever. This is not an opportunity to be Donald Trump’s Apprentice. This is national security. The paranoid and dim-witted are scooped up to stand hours upon hours to look at us, to evaluate in one second whether we are safe to be contained on a tin-tank flying in the air for more than a couple of hours. There were problems with the whole approach from the very beginning. The original concept of TSA is flawed. This is not so much about individual security as it is about gathering secured information. And who best to execute such a crime against basic human privacy? That job would belong to the most mistrusting, defeatists, no-hopers available at any moment.

“It's just part of a pattern of we are not vetting these candidates clearly," Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told Fox News. You’d think he was talking about the general intelligence, people-skills, and qualifications that TSA screeners possess in order to do the job effectively. No. Sen. DeMint has concerns that TSA screeners will unionize. And that would be really bad because it goes against oligarchy. I just don’t see a TSA Union as being anything other than complete compliant with the status quo. TSA has been in existence for less than a decade and they are already status quo. TSA screeners have to know about the long-term affects of over exposure to radiation scanners and they will simply not believe the studies or they value their jobs as being more important than their health. “Would you help a stranger?” TSA screeners are trained to be the new breed of the perfect victim of Stockholm syndrome, wherein hostages or victims have irrational positive feelings towards their captors and feel protective toward them.

It is a scary would in which we live. Let us not forget that we had a hand in creating this world. Let us not forget that we have a hand in creating the future.

I don’t know the answer. Truth be known, I don’t know enough to have a solution. None of us reading this will have enough information to effectively evaluate the situation. So let us begin with what we always begin with- awareness. It worked for Red Dye #5 and seat belts. Be aware that TSA employees can only do what it says to do in the manual. They follow directions without questions, they do not make decisions, and they will never ever utter an original thought. Now could you do that job?

By the time I found my way home from that spec of a hotel on the off-ramp out by the airport, the efficiency of the testing center was startling. I had an email confirming, in their to-the-point manner, the TSA will not be offering me employment. “Good luck with your future opportunities.” Na, it didn’t really say that.

Lead Paint and No Bicycle Helmet...

2009-10-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

and Soupy Sales are some of my favorite childhood memories. Soupy's pie throwing antics, puppets White Fang and Black Tooth... well, this was anti-Captain Kangaroo elitist after-school tv humor. You had to be a bit of an existentialist to get and appreciate Soupy- or a future substance abuser. None of us kids in my house dared to go into mom's wallet and send Soupy the pieces of green paper with pictures of presidents. We knew how scarce those pieces of green paper were to mom. Yet we waited all week to find out how many other kids did send him dollars. And they did. Soupy Punked the nation. Soupy had juice before there was juice. Soupy was anti-reality tv. For years, whenever in a pickle and needing to make a serious decision, I'd ask myself, what would Soupy do? And then I'd remember "be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you," which I see as "at least try." Soupy had pull. Soupy would only do it his way. Soupy had his time in the light. He was the first one I remember who gave me a new way of seeing the world. He was Kierkegaard for kids. Thanks Soupy. Rest wherever the hell it is that you want to rest.

When did Alice Cooper ever do a 52 week tour?

Years and years later, like maybe a hundred years later, and about three thousand miles away, I met Soupy's sons Tony and later Hunt Sales. Great musicians, played with Bowie on tour and in recording. I never had the nerve (or gall) to ask what kind of advise Soupy gave to them.

If you remember Soupy or if you've never heard of Soupy, you'll enjoy this tribute to our old pie throwing clown slash friend.

And bringing it back to me- I really hope this blog blog blog doesn't turn into a series of obits obits obits. Take care of yourselves, wear your helmet, watch out for asbestos and lead, and... and... and... go ahead throw a pie for a chrissakes, you know you want to.

Your name is on the list at the Pearly Gates, Brendan

2009-10-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

They should let you right in.

Not just any punk impresario, Brendan Mullen was The LA Punk scene.

Musicians couldn't break a guitar string in this town without Brendan knowing about it. I wasn't, and I still am not, a musician. I had the lovely pleasure to call Brendan a friend. He was LA family. In LA, all the disenfranchised folks find each other and create what we need and many times, we recreated what we were trying to get away from. Brendan, for me, was a sweet mixture of both and I believe he would say the same about me. I've known Brendan for close to thirty years and I am so moved to see the outpouring of love from everyone who knew him. The genuine caring this man put into his life's work- promoting the best of Los Angeles music and bringing us the best the rest of the world had to offer was always peppered with his salty brogue and dry wit. The blue eyes twinkled in the dark smokey clubs and his ears were perked to what was happening on stage. He prevailed the victor in many of his battles with personal demons. He was smart enough to recognize the authentic love in Kateria and he made the decision to deal head on with his Lothario ways. He never owned a home, but he always had a place for a friend to stay. He wasn't a comedian but I always laughed when I was with him.

He also had an excellent reputation as an A-1 DJ. His eclectic musical tastes guaranteed that he had more than just a little something for everyone. When he wasn't spinning disks at a party, he was the life of the party. A renowned raconteur, he was a bit of rascal and could kick some dust between folks just out of boredom.

Brendan was loved by so many. He loved so many. My life is richer for having been one of those people.

We must be the stupidest nation on earth

2009-10-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

Or we are just a bunch of Lemmings following every rat the news agency throw at us?

While the media hypnotized the nation with Boy Flies Away crap-

We missed talking about Obama visiting the aching New Orleans for the first time as president. There was a nice big bowl of gumbo waiting for the Commander in Chief. He didn't leave too much behind but a lot nicely put together words and some more of that hope he likes to pass around.

If you don't think that's a big deal- ask Arianna HuffPoington

Arianna got preempted by Balloon Boy on the Ed Shultz Show.

Ed should know better than that.

Regardless of this possibly being a tragic story, or even a hoax, can we please get off the sensationalism for the sake of any car chase or in this instance, the military chasing down a silver balloon! Keep that stuff to yourselves until you've sorted it out, thank you.

Oh, that felt good. Another quiet outrage finally exorcised before dinner.

Warning: Extremely Liberal Material :)

2009-09-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Hey there! I am thoroughly enjoying the Naomi Klein's interview of Michael Moore for Nation. Of course they are both brilliant. Personal opinion: Moore is off-putting sometimes, always to his detriment. But what he lacks in "social graces" he more than makes up for with passion and commitment to "the cause." I can always relate to his position on serious public policy issues. Sometimes it is the bull in the china shop who makes the most sense out of the right china pattern.

I have not seen his new film Capitalism: A Love Story. Yet. The trailer makes it clear that it's Moore's antics all over again with the People in Charge. The People who created The Cause for which we need thirty more Michael Moore's. He is going after The People who instigated the outrage over a bankruptcy so vast it reached beyond financial of every American. He's bringing attention to the moral corruption. Moore blames Capitalism. I don't know about that. Yet.

Progressives do not necessarily have a leader. The Right have always been better at fund raising and knowing how to spend the money. (Heard the first Meg Whitman ad this evening. which was more than a little creepy. You know that she's still on the board of ebay and she's running for Governor of California? Well you do now.) Progressives don't always have deep pockets. While Wendell Potter now gets hailed as the big hero to The Cause of health care reform, Michael Moore still gets knocked around by the Right Wing.

Michael Moore has taken enough abuse. Let's just listen to the guy, with an open mind, and he is entitled to have his say. And anyone is entitled to agree with him. Or not.

Rude- a national trend

2009-09-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of talk about the madness taking over our public discourse. I want to point to Linda Abcarian's article in today's Los Angeles Times. She emphasizes the point better than I:

"If this trend continues, it's not a good thing for the country."

The New Epidemic

2009-09-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

We have an epidemic of bad manners. It is spreading into the halls of congress (Rep. Wilson- R-S.C.), the stage of the VMA awards (Kanye West), and on to the tennis courts (Serena Williams). These are just three examples. There is an explosive nature taking over our personal exchanges.

I recently had to leave an email group of my old hometown gang. There were maybe two dozen names on the list, all who grew up in the same small town in the close suburbs of New York City, now spread out through the world. We reminisced and exchanged photos. We kept each other up to date and shared things of mutual interest. And then he arrived. You know the guy. He made some horrible decisions in this life, he screwed up and was screwed over, and he's basically a sorry case. It is a sad story and some of the others on the email list took pity on him but I prefer not to pity people. I want to accept them and help them if they need it and if I'm able, but I won't insult them with pity. Anyway, as soon as he arrived on the list we were all made aware that he had found The One, he had Jesus as his Savior. It was shallow at best, I didn't engage it, and yet it quickly became politically ignited. I tried to reason with him privately ("look," I'd say "protecting homosexuals under a hate crimes bill will not provide protection to pedophiles"). It tested my patience. But I took it as an exercise in balance and restraint. I never expected to convert the guy and that's probably where I made my mistake. People like him are looking to be converted or to convert. They go through their whole lives having to screw with things, they can never let well enough alone. They get their big awkward thumbs all over everything, they can't help themselves. But I drift away from the point of this long story.

I also asked him privately if he could curtail some of his more hate-filled religious rants without saying those exact words. I explained that I'm "sensitive" to that kind of material which is really a nice way of saying "You're a callous bore." Anyway, on the group emails, he just ramped it up. He singled me out. He grabbed on to a quote that I used in my email signature line by Ted Kennedy. It was the week that Kennedy died and I was showing a little respect. Well, Jesus' newly begotten son got on my case, to the whole group, about the mistakes of Ted Kennedy and that he wasn't a person worthy of, of, I don't know, acknowledgment.

I simply and briefly responded that it was a good opportunity to ask ourselves if we really do believe in redemption and forgiveness. Jesus' newly appointed spokesperson responded that Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to the Pope and so he did not deserve to be forgiven. His tirades escalated without my saying another word. This went on for a day and then some kind soul within the group emailed a few of us privately and asked what we can do about the particularly "mean spirit" of the emails of late? A few of the other people decided that they believed in freedom of speech and that we all had the option to delete. That's when I decided that the effort to filter him out and delete him, to have to navigate around his hate in the name of God, was an imposition. I opted out of the group. It took a few tries. I had to get very direct and stern with new Son of God before he understood that he was not to include me in on anymore of his emails. He did not know how to respond to the word 'stop.'

So there you have it. People are getting more rude every day. I blame the tone of the town hall meetings more than anything. I know it's really a much bigger issue but I don't want to navigate around other people's fears and ignorance's my whole life. I don't know if it will be possible. But we really do need to ask ourselves, what happened to get us so angry?

Now, I'd be so remiss if I didn't mention a particular reason for the rude tone among people, or a reasoning that has come up from New York to Kentucky from what I've seen, I'm sure more folk are mentioning it. So I better too. They are blaming this bad behavior, these over-the-line antics, on the fact that we have a black president. For all the crap we will say about Kanye West, he is not a birther. If I was a betting woman, my money would say that he voted Obama. I think the people who need to act out because the hate our black president are a virus that has fired up the rest of country. It's not a good heat. A vaccine would be more cool heads, but I do not witness an abundance of those.

I'm glad that Congress rebuked ol' Rep. Wilson. Note to South Carolina: get your representatives sorted out or stop embarrasing yourselves.

Thank you for listening.

Did you know the Constitution is for sale?

2009-09-04T23:07:00.000-07:00

I am so uneasy about the possibility of the Supreme Court's imminent decision regarding unregulated corporate spending on campaigns. This could be the beginning of the official end of any shreds of democracy left between these two shining (if not polluted) seas.

If the Supreme Court overturns this century's oldest campaign finance protection (the wee bit of protection that is truly left for individuals), We the People will become We the Poop. When I analyze the long-term and short-term implications of giving corporations, who already are able to outspend the consumer/voter, the equal right to endorse and contribute to political campaigns as much as their legislative needs require, well we will truly have given away the keys to the kingdom. I am so sorry. If this comes to pass, I will be so very sorry for all of us.

It reminds me of another tentacle of Jane Smiley's sound argument in favor of the public option in health care reform. She points out the obvious- that if Obama sells the middle-class down the river by signing off on anything less than a public option in a health bill, she rightly says, "that the government is just a sham, a front organization for wealthy corporations."

That's will just be the cherry on top of the real treat- if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiff in Citizens United v. FEC, welcome The United Corporations of America.

And then the truly ugly war between the titans of greed and megalomania will be at our doorsteps, in our homes, in our bank accounts, in our tvs, in our computers, in our books, movies, and schools and there will not be a damn thing we can do about it.

We need help. Individuals need to unite, not try to "divide and conquer" or it will be "divide and be conquered." It is in the hands of the Supreme Court and this will tell us pretty much everything we need to know about the health of our nation.

One more thing- don't miss Bill Moyer's essay to Barack Obama. This is what journalists are supposed to do.

a quick cut 'n past on healthcare reform

2009-08-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

My new fav word, birthed from the belly of the beast of the anti-reformers, "Nabobs of Negativity." Unfortunately, those who need to hear it most are those who are most unlikely to know what it means [pronounced nA-bob. A Hindi word originally referred to a provincial governor of the Mogul empire in India; NOW is used to describe a person of great wealth or prominence].

I want to direct you to an associate's well voiced piece about her experience at one of those Nabob rallies. Jennifer is a braver woman than I to have actually gone to one of these reasons for aspirin. I simply don't have enough health insurance coverage to risk the exposure to the violence and anger (yes, over exposure to anger can adversely affect one's health).

Hope you are remembering to drink plenty of fluids, eat your greens, exercise regularly and take your vitamins. in other words: take care of your health.

LA and the 50K in sandwiches

2009-08-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

If you're at all interested in the intrigue of LA politics, I need to direct you to this website. These folk (aka- The Thorn in City Hall's side) are on top of the latest issues and they don't pull punches. Enjoy!

Venice For Change: Whole Foods Responds To Boycott Threat (by holding up their employees as human shields)

2009-08-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

Venice For Change: Whole Foods Responds To Boycott Threat (by holding up their employees as human shields)

Hippies! Damn hippies!

2009-08-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

Hippies! Damn hippies!

That’s what we were all saying last Saturday at Beyond Baroque during Maureen Cotter’s 5^th annual reading from her memoirs. This year featured more prison stories centered during Maureen’s stint as a prison guard in 1969 when she was assigned to guard the key witness in the Tate-LaBianca Murders. These were brutal murders that had the entire city on pins and needles even though the intended targets of the rampage were white-rich people. I guess even back then white guys weren’t safe. I don’t mean to make light of the murders. Saturday night, the audience was on pins and needles as Cotter sensitively described the era and her little slice of the American pie. She had a summer residency in a castle in the Hollywood Hills and found herself geographically smack in the middle of both murders as well as her involvement at work.

The modern day equivalent of “hippies, damn hippies,” would be “socialists, damn socialized medicine advocates.” I wish I could say that the debate is heating up; it’s more like the distortion machine has gone into overdrive with smoke and mirrors. Our beloved legislatures are already making changes to the over 1000 page bill based upon bent truths as delivered by none other than that resigned-Governor-rather-than-be-a-lame-duck-Governor, Palin. Why any half brained person would trust her interpretation of the written word is beyond me. But if anyone is interested in taking a look at the actual bill, here it is (most of it is table of contents).

The real catastrophe of this particular bastardization of the democratic process is that it forces many people into defending a health bill before knowing that much about it. We'll do anything to insure health reform. Whatever “it” is, I doubt that it’s socialized medicine in the true sense of the word. It might begin the process to take health care out of free-trade, but it is not socialism. It won’t affect capitalism in the long run. It will, hopefully, begin the process to remove health care from the fair market system, where it never belonged.

But the saddest thing about these arguments is what they represent in the American people. I’m not one of those people. But I'm an American and they're shouting for Americans. They're not shouting and shoving on my behalf. They don’t know their facts and they are not even representing their own best interests. For me, it is another nasty reminder that we have a serious lack of critical thinkers and debaters in the country. Perhaps in the world. I don’t know what will happen to us as a people or as a nation.

My favorite joke recently: Even North Korea couldn't stop Bill Clinton from taking two girls home. I got a little wrapped up in the Euna Lee/Laura Ling capture-release drama. I am happy to see Bill Clinton making good use of his time and talents. And yeah, he's not Secretary of State. She is. But it was a few of those sucker moments that make me proud to be an American. It's probably slutty patriotism.

In any event, there is so much to be grateful for- I hope you're feeling it.

I finally had the opportunity to sit face to face with the fabulous Pat Rocco. He's a tall tale himself and he was generous with his reminisces of Morris Kight. If you have a thing for camp, do not miss the next chance there is to see Pat Rocco film series. These are the real deal, dears.

The new dirty word

2009-07-22T21:51:00.000-07:00

Socialism.

The reason some people resist health care reform is that they see reform as socialism. It's fear of the unknown. But from what I’m hearing, President Obama has not forgotten the interests of capitalists. This could be a big boom for insurance companies with mandated insurance and a “provision” for those “hardship cases” who simply cannot afford it. My mantra these days: Health care is not a commodity. If I keep saying this, maybe it’ll go somewhere that it could do something. In the meantime (and that’s going to be quite a long time), I’m keeping my eye on the goal as this is fundamental to the quality of our lives, individually and as a nation.

On a lighter note, check out the new adventures of Smigly from Allen Mez.

And back to a more serious note, if you haven't had a chance to watch Wendell Potter talking with Bill Moyers about his experience as a top executive for a top health insurance company, it's not too late.

Here in LA we say “stay cool,” not so much to wish cool and breezy temperatures or to invoke The Fonz, we say it wanting calm and levelheadedness.

And then we flip 'em the bird.

Two Birds - one stone

2009-07-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

RE: health care reform

I want to direct you to this page in LA Progressive blog for two reasons. You need to know about Dick and Sharon's LA Progressive, they do a great weekly run down of the issues that matter to people who care.

Also want to bring your attention to this particular piece of video from Bill Moyers' Journal. It is an eye opener from a former health insurance executive. It is the best 37 minutes you'll spend towards effective, progressive health care reform.

The health care industry is described as a "giant ATM" for Wall Street. I'm starting to feel a little sick just thinking about this.

I remember an old adage about an apple a day will keep the doctor away. I am wondering what the formula is to keep the insurance industry away from health care decisions.

This is embarrasing

2009-07-18T23:51:00.000-07:00

Well, this is embarrassing. I set up this blog last year with very good intentions to keep you posted on the comings and goings on over here at the Cherry Urban Ranch (that’s what I’ll call it for today) and you haven’t heard from me since the November election. I forgot the web address and the password. It’s embarrassing. But let me ask: didja miss me?

There have been lots of comings and lots of goings on over here. The right side of the brain is busy working on a new webisode entitled: “Arnie and Mike,” the left side of the brain says not to tell you too much at this time because we don’t want to spoil the surprises.

Am I the only one who sees the Senate Committee questioning Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, as a neutering process? They want to steam all the ethnic and female out of her in their last ditch efforts to protect the integrity of the white male perspective (which is always based upon personal experience). What’s the big concern? They seem to fear what the Supreme Court needs the most- a fresh perspective on the same old laws. Like most successful job candidates, she kowtowed to the interviewers and she seemed to survive intact. Let’s hope she’s not hoodwinking the America people who, while not all white and not all male, have a vested interest in the kind of job she will do. By the way, some of my best friends are white males.

I really enjoyed watching the Laker’s Victory parade. Not because I’m a big parade-ophile – I just like spending time with winners. And the Laker’s are so pretty when they win.

Like most of us, I was excited to see Barack Obama become president. It represented so many things, all of them good and positive. I admit, I wasn’t an Obama supporter from the gate (I wasn’t for Hillary either) and I never did get around to drinking the kool aid. I’m cool on his handling of the economic disaster; I feel that he is using the same tools and thinking that got us into this mess. I am not hopeful for his health care plan, which looks like it will amount to mandated health insurance (a big yahoo for the insurance companies). But I am loving Michele. She is by far the classist first lady ever. She’s an intimidating role model for working mothers only because she makes it look so easy (of course, she must have more help and handlers than a Ringling Brothers circus). She always shows up, looking cool and calm, she’s got it handled, whatever ‘it’ happens to be that day. She must intimidate Barack on some level and good for him for marrying a woman who does that to him. I was moved watching the photos of Sasha and Malia standing in the "Door of No Return" at Cape Coast Castle, Africa (a fortress where slaves were kept before being shipped to America). The two girls walked through the doorway, and then walked back out. It was a reminder that progress does prevail and as our president commented on his daughters freedom of movement, “while the future is unknowable, the winds always blow in the direction of human progress."

I’m going to leave all further comment regarding the City of Los Angeles paying for Michael Jackson’s funeral (in a time when we are laying off school teachers and cutting library hours) to Arnie & Mike. They will have something to say about that right from the start.

I’m here waiting for Suzanne. We are going to a special event at downtown’s Union Station. It’s SVREP’s 35th anniversary gala. What’s so special about this one? It features faire from six of Los Angeles’ top South American cuisine restaurants, which means a few hours of some serious um um. Suzanne will agree that an evening of multiple cuisines is probably the last thing that the either of us need right now- but it’s for a good cause.

The really important news, the big reason for you and me to be here, on this page at this time is the wonderful Morris Kight biography that has been keeping me the busiest. I love this work. It is time consuming, challenging, and it has added so much to my life. It has been a long process and I have grown from it. If nothing, Morris Kight’s memory is well served by the response of the people who knew him and the community he helped to create. The gay and lesbian community has opened their homes, their hearts, their photo books, their personal diaries to me to assist my effort to tell the story of this fascinating individual. In addition, I have traveled across the country and been given the privilege to scour private collections of personal letters, notes, doodling, audio tapes and 8mm films that help to piece together the 83 years that Kight put in on this earth and a majority of those years were dedicated to the liberation of all gay peoples. I want to thank the gay community who, for the most part, are a real classy bunch. See the photo of Morris Kight and this blogger taken in 1995.

And that’s not all. There are other people embracing the telling of gay history. It is so pertinent to this country’s overall history; these human stories need to be told and retold and examined from many different perspectives and experiences. First-person accounts of “the bad old days” of entrapments and arrests on trumped up charges are as important as the documentation of the holocaust. There are two such movie projects that I’d like to bring to your attention. “The Other Side,” by Jane Cantillon is an excursion through the oldest gay piano bar in the Silverlake section of LA. Beautifully told stories woven together by regulars at a neighborhood piano bar, reminiscing an incredibly oppressive era in a place where they would find joie de vivre and also a place that one police raid could abruptly destroy career and family.

Another recent effort is “On These Shoulders We Stand,” a gift of love to the LGBT community from mechanic-turned-filmmaker Glenne McElhinney. McElhinney has assembled an impressive trove of archival research, some of the finest film footage and photographs available from pre-Stonewall days entwined with personal accounts.

All the attention being given to the gay right struggle brings me back to the words our president said just the past week when referring to slavery: “While the future is unknowable, the winds always blow in the direction of human progress."

Yep.

So with this blogisode I am making a sincere effort to begin the practice of “blogging,” as created by generation X, Y, or one of those. We’ll see how it goes and let me know what you think. Which, if any, parts of my ramble do you like? Dislike? Do I get a “D” in blogging?

Good night Uncle Walter. There will never be another anchor like him.

That’s the news from here for now.

Note to self: pick up paint

2008-11-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

Like the gentleman said, "God bless these United States of America."

I keep thinking that I will snap out of this alternate reality in a second and be back to where we were on Monday. I’m excited by some of the names I hear bandied about for cabinet posts (I’ve been pushing for Bill Richardson as Sect of State since February when he left the White House race).

I was out poll watching most of yesterday afternoon (very uneventful, a few places came close to running out of ballots). Then I was results watching with some friends. We were watching Steve Colbert and Jon Stewart when Stewart came on and announced “Barack Obama is the next president of the United States,” and we immediately had to change the channel to make sure that it wasn’t a Jon Stewart prank. Spent the rest of the evening washing tears out of my eyes and pinching myself. It’s been an amazing experience. And quite honestly, it'll all have been worth it with when we see those two little beautiful girls playing on the front lawn of the White House with their new puppy.

“Let’s paint the White House black.” ~George Clinton

"Change has come to America."

Ahhhhhhhhh....

2008-11-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

It's a new day in America!

Prop 8 - just wrong

2008-10-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

We are on the cusp of a great transition. It struck me very deeply yesterday while walking down the street with some skateboarders. Well, they were rolling up and down the street, I was some lady in their way. They were happy, young, and healthy. A young black boy rolling towards me on his skateboard in his own personal high, was not aware of me or a worry in the world. I nearly broke down in tears thinking, "you're life is going to be so much better than your father's life beginning next week."

I want to feel that way for gay and lesbian youths too.

As we take one big step forward with this foot - we can possibly be taking a big step backward with the other foot if the voters in California pass Proposition 8 (which would outlaw same sex couples from marrying). I came across an open letter that Huey Newton (from Black Panther fame) wrote in 1970 to the black community in an attempt to unite the Gay Liberation Front and the Women's Liberation Movement with the Black Power Movement in "a revolutionary fashion." In it he says, "homosexuals might be the most oppressed people in our society." Yep, that's the leader of the Black Panthers claiming homosexuals are more oppressed than blacks in America (and that's saying something!).

Some parts of the letter are hilarious in its backhanded way of finding tolerance for the Women's Movement ("we want to hit the woman or shut her up because we're afraid that she might castrate us, or take the nuts that we might not have to start with"). Even still, the point of Newton's letter was to encourage acceptance of homosexuals in the civil rights movement.

Even though he said that he didn't entirely understand "what made them homosexual," Newton warned against using disparaging language (i.e "faggot"). It was an effort to unite the movements without alienating himself from his own community or making his own sexuality suspect.

His letter ends: "Homosexuals are not enemies of the people."

And here we are, almost 40 years later about to elect our first Black President. Damn, I'm proud and white.

And yet we're still debating about who can love whom and how and what they should do within that love. Damn, I'm straight and ashamed.

I am so curious what Huey Newton would say today if he were alive. I think it might be something along the lines of:
"We are are our own worst enemies."

Count down

2008-10-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

With less than 1 week to go, we're already seeing problems with our clean and transparent voting system.

http://www.ourvotelive.org/home.php

Seeing problems at a polling place? Having trouble voting?
call 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683)

VOTE EARLY. VOTE ONCE.

Want to vote early? It varies by which county you are in, check it out:

http://govote.org/

We are the leaders that we've been waiting for.

Are we at all alike?

2008-10-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Are you like me? Are you obsessed with this election? It feels more like an addiction than a healthy civic concern. I’m already planning for the withdrawal to begin the morning of November 5. I must. Well, may be November 6. But I’ve made a commitment, to my friends, family, and most importantly to myself. I have to get back to my life.

Speaking of civic commitments, let’s talk about the Rock Stars of Election Day: Poll workers. Those are the people who will have completed a 3 hour class with the County, watched a 2 GB Instructional Video at home, and will have arrived at a polling place near you at 6:00 AM to prepare for the most important day in our nation, they are on the frontlines of our democratic system at work. It wouldn’t work without them. As someone put it, “Poll workers are the foundation upon which democracy rests.”

But if you are really like me, you’ve been voting by mail for a couple of years now. These ballots are counted early in Los Angeles County and mine is signed, sealed, stamped, and delivered. So I should be able to relax, right?

Wrong.

I decided to make November 4 "Poll workers are Rock Stars” Day. I’ll pick a few precincts where I know they had a shortage of local poll workers and someone had to travel from outside the area to help with the local civic responsibilities. LA County, for instance, had difficulty getting poll workers on the west side and in the north county. I guess the work isn’t good enough. Anyway, I’m on a mission to thank the poll workers – bring treats, water, whatever. Can’t be distracting to the process and I know enough to arrange this before hand and call ahead of time. But I think it can be done – besides I need something to do with all this nervous energy.

My point is: Remember to say thank you to your poll workers. If you think that things are screwed up now, just imagine…

Sources:

http://lavote.net/

http://act.credoaction.com/pollworkers/