The Master Illusionist-George Bush

An Illusionist performs acts that are erroneous perceptions of reality. For example, four years ago President Bush stood on the deck of an American Aircraft Carrier in front of a banner that stated “Mission Accomplished”. That was an illusion performed by an illusionist. Theatre on the other hand is a dramatization of truth as the author of the work understands it.
We have heard suggestions from the Bush Administration that the current “emergency” funding bill that will come before him is Political Theatre; it is, for sure. But it does not come close to the Theatre of the Absurd or the magic acts that this administration has performed during the prior six years of unsupervised spending.
The current legislation sent to the President contains billions of dollars in emergency funding for his war and it also includes $21 billion for storm repairs in the Gulf of Mexico, drought relief for farmers, Medicaid reimbursement for doctors and hospitals and funding for children's health insurance.
The bill includes upgrading the science of warfare as regards to protecting our troops against IEDs. The bill underwrites an increase in the services to our Veterans, something that this administration forgot before they went to war. “Oh, we are going to have veterans”? It provides for better living conditions for our troops families and it funds the reconstruction of our National Guard. Why we have an “emergency” funding bill should be a question for everyone since we have been in this quagmire for a long, long time, thus it should be part of our national budget.
When President Bush Veto’s this bill, and we all know he will, he will have finally stated to the people of America that he has no regard for America’s Armed Forces, he is only an illusionist who is delusional.

When Comfort Zones are No Longer a Comfort

For about 5 years now my partner and I have been orchestrating, totally on a volunteer basis, a fund raiser in Florida. It has been considered one of the more fun times for the Lesbian and Gay Community in our area. It has also always been conducted with dignity as both of us are fully aware of the “eyes of the homophobe” always looking on us, just waiting for the little mistake.

The people who operate the venue for this event and the employees who work at the facility have always, in the past, been 100% cooperative and as a result I personally have always felt welcomed at this venue. Indeed the employees love this event because they make a lot of money in tips and it is just a fun time.

But this year was different. It started out with threats by the “new” assistant manager. He informed us that if anyone found anything to be offensive, he would send all the employees home and thus shut down the fundraiser. Not being the spokesperson for the event I was silent, but in my mind I was wondering who is going to be the judge of what is offensive, knowing fully that of course he has set himself up to be the judge and, well jury is out of the question.

Would "offensive" to him be me hugging and kissing two lesbian women at the same time?, probably not, or would it be me planting a big wet kiss on my lover for all the hard work he has done? Who knows but I knew then and there that my personal conduct had to be in line with what the homophobic "straight" community considers to be "non-offensive" because this fundraiser is an important one, at least for us. (Did I fail to mention that this venue was closed to anyone other then those who bought tickets?)

So we started the evening off on a sour note and for me that sour note once again reminded me that intolerance and ignorance is still the prevailing modus operandi in America, even in what we think to be tolerant businesses and tolerant communities. Fortunetly, no one but a few of us knew what was going on and all of our guests had a great time and we raised a lot of money.

As the night went on, as busy as I was, I kept hearing partial conversations with employees, over the noise of the event, being conducted by this “assistant manager” that only confirmed what I perceived to be the truth when he laid out his initial threats (I am blessed with my mother’s ears that are not only large, they can pick up signals from space). The tidbits were about AIDS and our “lifestyle”, no mention of course that half the people there were lesbian women, who we have come to know as God’s chosen people since their risk of HIV/AIDS is nil.

The real scourge of the night was this assistant manager suggesting that the venue that he was operating was a “family” place. No thought or consideration that everyone who attended this function was part of a family, and that my partner and I have lived as a family for 39 years. Yes, ignorance and intolerance prevails.

I volunteered long hours preparing for this event and my partner worked twice as hard, probably more, to bring this fundraiser to a successful conclusion. A fundraiser that would benefit our young Gay and Lesbian kids, our family, and also bring good GLBT awareness films to our so called liberal community. And just one single homophobe was able to deny me the fun of the evening.

I guess the message is that comfort zones can always be destroyed by one single bigot.

Author's Note: I am pleased to post that this time bigotry lost out to common sense and the dignity of a minority. Bigotry lost out big time, as it should, all the time.

Truth

I have, in my ageing years, always sought the truth (granted, the truth as I understand it). As such, at times I have compromised friendships along the way. In all honesty I would rather be a lonely old man living in a cave, sans friends, then to live without the truth.
As some of you know the anti gay Constitution Amendment initiatives are not over with yet. The Florida bigots get their chance at the ballot in 2008.
We learned from Michigan that the Catholic Church and its minions not only want to destroy gay marriage, they want to destroy gay relationships (I guess it is their way of recruiting more priests). Florida is facing the same language as Michigan and I guess Virginia. This Constitutional Amendment does not only ban gay Marriage, it bans contracts made between two people of the same sex. Your “Dual Power of Attorney” will be null and void. If either you or your partner depend on each other for Health Care Insurance under Domestic partner benefit rules, that will be gone. In the State of Florida Gay/Lesbian partners can not, today, decide the determination of their partners in the case of death. That is to say, a “blood relative” (you know, the one who would have nothing to do with you ever) has more rights then your life partner and will have total claim on your estate if the Constitutional Amendment, vigorously being promoted by the Roman Catholic Church is passed.
Just recently I received an email listing the names of those who signed the “petition” to place the Constitutional Amendment on the Ballot. On that list was a neighbor three doors away. This woman is a Catholic but she has always been nice to me. When I saw her name on the list I almost cried. This lady, with her baby, was in my home, she always came up to me at neighbor parties and was gracious but then I thought, you never know.
So I sent her a copy of the petition showing her name as a signer to ban gay marriage, explaining to her that her signature on this petition not only banned “gay marriage” if banned all contracts between gay men and women and not only released Governments and corporations from offering “domestic partner” benefits but made it unlawful for them to do so. In other words, many Gay Americans will lose their health care insurance.
She sent me an email saying that she never signed any petition. She is a Catholic and attends Catholic Church. My gut feeling and my gut is usually more than correct, is that the Roman Catholic Church has chosen to win at all cost, their souls dammed to hell, in order to destroy the Gay and Lesbian Community. Some aggressive “Catholics” in some Parishes took it upon themselves to sign the names of all the parishioners on their mailing lists, shame on them but shame on us for not taking them to task.
This is not my “Catholic Church”; this is an aberration if there ever was one.
So I have made it my promise and my mission to “OUT” any Gay person associated with the Roman Catholic Church. I can no longer tolerate flagrant hypocrisy I will no longer idly stand by and watch hypocrites preaching hate from pulpits then go sucking dick at the first opportunity, singing songs and clapping hands, while their Church diminishes the dignity of our relationships. This can not stand.
I am not quite sure why anyone would have a problem understanding the honesty of this message, bottom line, It has to stop…….game on.
Peace,
Bart

Virginia is for Lovers-but Not Gay Lovers

For now, enough about George bush and his lies. I know I am tired of him and I am sure most people are, time to move on, and hope that soon he will be gone. It’s time to have some serious talk about Faith.

When I was a sophomore in High School I volunteered to go on a retreat to a Trappist Monastery. So me and two friends, one of the Christian Brothers and his friend drove from Philadelphia to someplace south of Washington, DC to a Trappist Monastery, to pray, I guess.

Actually it was a thrilling experience, I was a city boy and other then cows on commercial I never came face to face with one. The Monks raised Black Angus and how was I to know a bull from a cow, they were all black and all looked the same to me.

When you are in an Abby you spend most of your time praying. Every three hours they trotted you off to the chapel to pray, in Latin. I am not sure if “yawning” is prayer but I did a lot of that.

But, back to the cows, when we were not “praying” I spent time dodging cow plops and bulls or distraught cows, they chased me. Perhaps they were Dyke Cows and wanted me out of their space. I was agreeable to that so I took on another mission.

I decided that I would get all the Monks that I came into contact with, to speak (they all took a vow of silence). I knew that “yes and no” questions would not work. So I devised a system of questions that would require more then a yes or no answer. “Why” is always a good way to start those questions. To be honest I saw the pain on the faces of some of these, I have to say, gorgeous men, and I just stopped the challenge.

So we left the Monastery, suitcases full of Trappist Jelly and headed home. On the way, in Virginia the Brother who was driving was pulled over to the side by a Police Officer. He, the Brother, apparently exceeded the speed limit in some, as I know now, to be some honky-tonk anti-Catholic town in Virginia (and I have been praying for the souls of that town ever since, NOT). We were sent to jail, three boys, two adult men, for probably doing 25 in a 20 mile zone. The only money the Christian Brother had on him was Christmas card money, so he said, that was collected for the school. That in itself was probably a mistake, Virginians do no like Catholics and money to support their schools was something to be taken away and probably given to their type of “Christianity”.

We were released and sent on our way and we had a few bucks between us so we traveled north and made a stop in Washington, DC to visit the Roman Catholic Shrine to the Immaculate Conception.

My Spirit that day was reborn. I watched women praying at the Blessed Mother’s altar, hoping for some kind of relief from whatever was paining them. As a 14/15 year old I knew whatever they were praying for probably will not happen because of their prayers, it will happen because some fine doctor of science will either fix the problem or determine that the problem can not be fixed with the technology available and some Priest will be drawn in to give them comfort.

I have no idea what those women were praying for but I know the very act of praying gave them comfort. But this is what I pray for,

• I pray that my life will be one that contributes to the Glory of God, whoever He/She is.
• I pray that my life partner and I will always be faithful to one another, truthful and dedicated to each others missions.
• I pray that every service in which I involve myself or my community I do so with distinction and merit.
• I pray that one day human kindness defeats ignorance and that we can move on with programs to benefit all humankind
• I pray that Families, however they manifest themselves, can be free from scorn and prejudice.
• I pray that one day Christians will truly understand the message of Jesus Christ and admit that His rule is that Revelation did not end with is Crucifixion and Resurrection.
• I pray that one day people will no longer make monetary profit by exploiting the Word of Christ.
• I pray that one day we understand that the preservation of Human Life includes those who we think should be killed by the State.
• I pray that one day we will understand that we, as a society, have a responsibility to dignify the lives we would have scorned the women from aborting by providing health care, jobs and most of all Dignity to their lives.
• I pray that one day all men (and women) in America will be recognized as being created equally and given the right to pursue the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.

AMEN

Magical Mystery Tour - Truth

Whoa, I guess I am on a Magical Mystery Tour of my life, hence, I am going back even further to when I was about 7 years old and was told I needed to have a pair of Rosary Beads which would cost me fifty cents. So where was a kid whose family was buying groceries on “the eye” (that was credit in those days) going to find fifty cents? All of a sudden the opportunity presented itself. I was sent to the store to pick up groceries and with the cash to pay off the “eye”. After all was settled and groceries in “arms” I trotted back from the corner grocery store with change in hand, minus the fifty cents that I placed into my pocket for my Rosary Beads.

Joe and Mona were the merchants who ran the grocery store. To be honest I never knew they were Jewish and my parents never expressed any anti Semitism that I ever heard, indeed we lived in a neighborhood that was changing because of the “great black migration” to the North. In addition, before the blacks, we were more likely to be persuaded to not like Italians.

But I digress. The point is that I was sort of going to blame Joe and Mona for the $.50 shortage in the change, but I can tell you that did not work, at all. Turns out my Mom trusted Joe and Mona and was always grateful for their kindness to our family. They knew when we were on hard times and they “waved things off” sometimes, actually most of the time. So “little Bart” underwent torture that would bring out the truth, even from the prisoners at Guantanamo. I jest of course, my mother was disappointed that I would lie; she thought she taught me better. When I saw the disappointment in her face that day, that day was the day I learned not to lie, ever again. I promised my Mother "that day" that I would never lie again and I have remained faithful to that promise to my mother. I am so glad I made that promise because my life has been easier because of it.

While I am not a believer in the Bible, as factual,there is something in the Bible that suggests that a liar should be tied to a stone and thrown into the waters, drowned. I would perhaps choose not to kill a liar, or anyone else for that matter but there is a lot to be said about that, not to mention the hypocrisy which liars are associated.

And so here we are a government full of lies, afraid to face the people, under oath, and to tell the truth. It is apparent to me that those in control of the Federal Government now did not have good mothers, like I did. Their Mothers did not have the integrity, the honor and the love that would make a child so young to commit to honesty. As a kid I could have caused damage to two wonderful people but my Mom would not be a part of that, she was a humble women but she was truly fond of truth.

Bart

Bad CEOs Should be Fired

When I was in 8th grade we were assigned a project to draw maps of South America and identify their economic contribution to the world. While I have forgotten of what each country, at the time, contributed I do remember that Columbia was of course Coffee another was rubber and another was cacao, chocolate.

Now you got to remember this was almost 40 some years ago. In those days you could go to the pharmacist and by empty capsules, which I did. I created a map of South America and on that map I glued little capsules containing the legal exports of the South American countries. Of course as a pre teen I needed to experiment. I don’t remember which country was famous for “salt” exports but I decided to ingest their capsule of salt. Big mistake, for sure, I threw-up. I have since blamed my high blood pressure problem on some South American country ever since, but still not sure which one.

So where am I going with this? Very simple, while I no longer know the economic contributions of countries south of our border, other then human labor, If I was shown a map I could pick out each country, whether labeled or not. For that matter I could pretty much point to any country, other then the newly formed countries as a result of the Soviet Union disbandment. But can most American’s do that? The answer is no. Indeed many leaders in high places think Greenland is in the tropics.

Which brings me to religion, and you ask how did I go from Geography to Religion? Simple, it’s all about ignorance. Do any Americans understand that the reason Religion is not taught in our schools is because some Protestants, now identified as Fundamentalist, were afraid that somehow the Catholic religion would take over. So once again “Fundamentalist” create ignorance. Not only have they created a stain on Catholics they have promoted ignorance in America about other religious beliefs to the extent that some of our elected officials and worse of all most Americans have no idea of the difference between a Sunni and Shiite Islamic.

For those who have no clue and continue to think that there is no Civil War in Iraq, here is the simple take….Sunni Arabs have controlled Iraq for, hummm, probably a century. Shiite Islam is pretty much a Persian sect, Iran and moving westward via Lebanon, but believers occupy the southern portion of Iraq. Shiite’s have been diminished under the rule of Saddam Hussein. Indeed, back in the first Gulf War President Bush, the good one was criticized for not moving into Bagdad and leaving the Shiite in the South of Iraq and the Northern Kurds to the mercy of Saddam. He knew what he was doing, he respected the cost to America’s treasury in lives and economic resources, his son, and the current President did not, has not and apparently will not.

The Global problem with this war is that if we leave now Iran will indeed control the world’s largest petroleum reserves. Not only that, they will be able to create a “crescent” of terror in the Middle East that will endanger our current way of living not to mention the fear that will ensue in the State of Israel.

So how do we solve the problem that George Bush has created and that his Secretary of State, in the words of Donald Trump, “she just keeps waving” but does not seem to be very effective? Simple, get rid of the problem. Since America is now all about corporate enterprise and rules then the failed CEO should be fired, at once.

Stand by Your Country

Using a credit card (s) can be damaging to your wealth, or so we have been told and so many have learned the hard way. However, as any Republican, from the President on down will tell you, borrowing is a good thing, it stimulates the economy, it creates innovation and helps people to start and upkeep their businesses. And so it is, Americans, under Republican rule have probably borrowed us into a "depression". Trillions of dollars being spent on the War in Iraq, today and in the future, assuming that America will continue to “Support the Troops” when the bill for their health care, inclusive of psychological care, comes due. This Administration has been caught in the Wall Street web of “instant gratification”. They never, ever, plan for the future, they never planned beyond “Mission Accomplished”; they never had any thoughts or planned for the future of the health and welfare of the American people. This Republican Administration blew it after September 11, 2001, America was humbled but she was loved by the entire world, now she is an object of scorn throughout the world. I think it should be pretty obvious to most Americans, by now, that the current Republican agenda is to bankrupt the American treasury to the benefit of the International agendas of their financial supporters and to drag the American Middle class into poverty in order to compete in their so called Global Economy. I never thought that “impeachment” was a good thing to do, it distracted the Administration and the Nation from important business, in this case I not only think it is the correct thing to do, I think it is the only thing to do before this Administration causes anymore harm to this country. For those who think that not supporting the President in this time of crises I would like to quote one of America’s really great presidents, a man who understood what it means to protect the American people and, goodness, the environment we live in. “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official...”~Theodore Roosevelt