The Pinnacle of American Socialism Under Four-term President FDR

Politico Magazine calls FDR's nomination for a second term in June 1936, "the pinnacle of American socialism," which I chose for the title of this post. I found their 2019 article, "What FDR Understood About Socialism That Today's Democrats Don't" after a discussion with my girlfriend about communism, socialism and democracy during the Cold War. We don't often discuss politics, but with the attempt on the 45th president's life, we were waxing more that way than usual this week.

I like what David Brooks, a New York Times Opinion Columnist, said in Dec 2019, "The best version of socialism is defined by Michael Walzer’s phrase, 'what touches all should be decided by all.' The great economic enterprises should be owned by all of us in common. Decisions should be based on what benefits all, not the maximization of profit." Full disclosure, his opinion piece was promoting capitalism, as he had become one after years of promoting socialism. Still, his former ideals are on full display in this quote, above.

If you read Brooks' piece or simply Google, "Why is Socialism Bad," as I did, you'll get a litany of conservative groups, media organizations and political think tanks that talk about the failures of socialism, like in countries that have tried it. But Canada, our neighbor to the north, is a democratic socialist country and they haven't failed. Their citizens aren't flocking to their southern border to try and escape the horrors of socialism by seeking refuge in capitalist-crazed America. No, quite the contrary, they mock us for our backwards, non-progressive politics.

Other hits will talk about how the ideals never live up to the reality and, in fact, undermine individual's motivation to learn and work hard. And yet, we can clearly see how people were VERY motivated and actually put back to work by FDR's post-Depression policies during the "pinnacle." The very short-sighted articles you'll see in the Google search don't even explore FDR and Socialist America. They only want to look at contemporary folks, who they call neosocialists, like Bernie Sanders and the "redistribution of wealth."

Well, let's think on that a minute, the actual distribution. The top one-percent gets to keep most of it, while dividing the rest of us with capitalistic rhetoric, all while their oversized Florsheims are firmly on our necks. Those "one percenters" aren't going to have to work themselves to death at age 75 or 80, nor are their children or grandchildren. We just have to keep working to support them. The way capitalism has rigged the system in this country is that the rich just keep getting richer, pass down their wealth (avoiding the high cost of estate taxes through loopholes) to their successors, who also never have to work, etc., etc., etc. That's the "American way," the status quo as it's been in this country for decades, at least since Reagan took office. Where is the "trickle down" effect, Ronnie? As Reich, who I mention below, put it succinctly, "In the mid-1980's, the bottom 90 percent of Americans together held 36 percent of the nation’s wealth. Now, they hold less than 23 percent." (Source: RobertReich.org)

Robert Reich, an American economist, wrote in 2014, "The richest Americans hold more of the nation’s wealth than they have in almost a century...the richest one-hundredth of one percent of Americans now hold over 11 percent of the nation’s total wealth. That’s a higher share than the top .01 percent held in 1929, before the Great Crash. We’re talking about 16,000 people, each worth at least $110 million." He's comparing today's uber-rich to those in FDR's time, during the "Great Crash" of 1929, aka The Great Depression.

In FDR's America, the Politico article says, "The rich were subsidizing the poor," at a tax rate of 75 percent. And by and large, people were okay with this type of socialist redistribution of wealth because the working class were starving in our streets. Those of the upper class who criticized the president, it says, "cloaked their greed in an affinity for capitalism." The same can be said today. Socialism, they claim, is a dirty word because it is anti-capitalist, meaning bad for their bottom line.

Roosevelt said back then in his famous "Rendezvous With Destiny" speech, "In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and Constitution stand for," while he stood "against dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.” The very same could be said for the flag-draped, neoconservatives today whose real allegiance is to The Almighty Dollar, and not to God, country or Constitution.

FDR's "New Deal for America" Socialism was, in fact, so popular it won him four terms as president and became the basis for today's term limits. He served from 1933 until his death in 1945. His socialist programs that encouraged unions and established Social Security and the Works Progress Administration were wildly popular. In fact, socialism got us out of the Great Depression. To argue otherwise is foolhardy and blind. Yet, still today, socialism is treated like a dirty word, and it's proponents, like Sanders and AOC, mocked. How quickly we forget. Our grandparents' generation never forgot. Many of them grew up in Depression-era America. It drove them to become what some call "America's Greatest Generation," but don't let the neoconservative rewriters of history tell you it was something else. It was FDR's socialist policies that created that generation. You can argue this all you want, but the fact remains, he was the longest serving president in our history. His brand of socialism was popular in this country. And now it's a dirty word. That's counter-intuitive and sad.

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON 45

You know I’d have something to say…

LET ME PREFACE…You knew violence was coming. You’ve been fanning the flames since BEFORE Jan 6…and when that didn’t ignite the next Civil War, as you were hoping, you just ramped up the rhetoric and turned your platform over to Christian Nationalists because you thought they’d secure enough votes from Middle America.

Oh, you thought I was gonna denounce violence???

Violence is what got us here 248 years ago! We just celebrated that bloody revolution on July 4th.

Violence eventually ended the slave trade.

Every country who experienced a change to democracy had to do so through violent takeover of the status quo—France, for example. We are headed down the same, exact road in 2024 thanks to the current oligarchy and patriarchy. Look at our choices this November—two aging, privileged white men.

NOW we arrive to the point of this post. You think you are disgruntled and disenfranchised with our government and the status quo. Let me tell you how my daughters and most of their generation feel. They have HAD ENOUGH WITH THE PATRIARCHY and wrinkly, curmudgeony OLD MEN looking at them, judging them and stripping away their rights. They have ZERO empathy with the status quo as it predates them (and us) by EONS. The establishment, with its systemic racism and sexism, has been in power FOREVER and they ain’t having it. My daughters blame me and the generations of men before me. I can’t say that I blame them.

Where is the representative government they were taught in civics class? Where are the young women—black, white, brown, ANY COLOR—in Congress, the statehouse, town hall??? In more than 100 years of suffrage, we still don’t have an Equal Rights Amendment OR any semblance of equality!

It’s not a lot better for young men. We’ve pampered and sheltered boys who don’t want to ween from the teet nor the game controller. We’ve raised a generation of unsocialized savages who take out their angst on virtual enemies and have no real grasp on reality.

WATCH and see what comes out about the young gunman who shot at DJT. I’d stake my life on the fact he fits the stereotypical profile of the bullied, anxious boy-man who shoots up schools.

AND HE’S AN ALT-RIGHT, GUN-TOTING REPUBLICAN!!!

Even those kids are so disgruntled and disenfranchised that they’d take violence to their own candidate and try to take them out. ARE YOU LISTENING RNC & DNC? As you head to meaningless conventions that only matter on Wall Street and not Main Street?

NO ONE WANTS MORE OLD, WHITE, OUT-OF-TOUCH MALE CANDIDATES! PERIOD.

As I wrote earlier this month, not even the GOP is united behind their cult leader, I mean, candidate. And all we’ve heard for DAYS from the left is that Biden needs to step aside.

The country wants change. It probably won’t happen in the most civil of ways. Yesterday was a warning shot from a disgruntled and disenfranchised young man. He’s not alone…on either side of the aisle…or gender spectrum.

PATRIARCHY, are you listening???

SYSTEMIC, STRUCTURAL SEXISM (In America)

It's funny that the European countries we were beholden to and where most of us immigrated from are so much further advanced than we are when it comes to equality and social policies. Even Mexico, to our South, and Spanish-controlled Florida in the 1800's had abolished slavery when the trade was at it's peak in our country. And ever since racial equality has been a thing and gender equality (and insert social justice or policy issue here), the Europeans, namely British and French have been way ahead of us, Great Britain's Slavery Abolition Act of 1834 following France by some 40 years. Spain, who brought slavery to this continent, signed a pact with the U.K. in 1817 to abolish the slave trade. And even though we got on board in 1865 after the Civil War tore this country apart, slaves still weren't free. After a short period of "reconstruction," the South still persisted with the "new slavery," sharecropping, and Jim Crow Laws. It took the civil unrest of the 1960's to finally end the systemic racism and oppression of African Americans, a cancer that hasn't been totally eradicated from our culture.

Women's suffrage was a popular civil rights movement some four decades earlier. Still, women don't enjoy the same freedoms, bodily autonomy or adequate compensation for similar work as men.

This is one reason we need more female representation in the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of U.S. Government. How can we call this a "representative democracy," a republic, when our Legislative branch is dominated and controlled by old, white men? The disparity was called out in an April committee meeting on Capitol Hill by Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA).

Pool/Getty Images (Google)

In a Young Turks video from April that garnered 2.4 million views, Rep. Porter goes head-to-head with a Heritage Foundation official, Dr. Burke, at this hearing. "Only about 28% of members of Congress are women. The median age of the Senate is 65 and the median age in the House is 58...so, on average, lots of older people, lots of older men," as she points out that policies protecting women's rights, especially single mothers, are never prioritized. These policies, specifically early childhood education, "won't benefit many members, most, the average member of Congress...even when their kids were young, most members leaned most heavily on their wives, and I say wives because most members are men...Too many in Congress don't get it because they didn't have to live it," Rep. Porter said.

She calls out "the familiar policy pattern" in Congress to invest in things they understand. "The collective body of older, richer men in Congress OVER-invest in things they understand (emphasis hers)." She claims policies to benefit single mothers don't personally benefit the average member of Congress and so they don't try to understand the problem as it never affected them personally, so they don't invest public dollars to support things like early childhood education.

STRUCTURAL SEXISM
Rep. Porter continued to call out her male colleagues for ignoring the plight of women, in general, and single mothers, in particular. She identified the ongoing inequality in public policy a result of "structural sexism."

"When we say that structural sexism continues to permeate this body...and our policies, that's what we're talking about. We're not imagining it." She claims that policies to benefit women are what "always ends up on the cutting room floor in legislation." She intends to make structural sexism go away with more progressive policies. "Women can and must contribute to our economy if we're going to have a globally competitive economy." Rep. Porter hopes that her colleagues will be moved to take action by "this single mom asking them to care, on behalf of all the other parents of young children who are struggling in this country." She claims to be the only single mother in Congress. She asked the committee, "What about the 10 million single moms? Where do they fit?"

She concluded by saying, "I'm sharing my story because my story doesn't get heard in Congress...Our whole perspective here is warped by the fact that this body is so disproportionately UN-representative of the American people's experience."

Springer Link says, "Structural sexism refers to discriminatory beliefs or practices on the basis of sex and gender that are entrenched in societal frameworks and which result in fairly predictable disparities in social outcomes related to power, resources, and opportunities. [It] also functions to normalize and legitimate such beliefs, practices, and inequalities of conditions and outcomes."

An October 2022 study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports, "Structural sexism manifests via norms that constrict women’s social participation, including at work." Furthermore, "Intimate partner violence (IPV) is underpinned by structural sexism, patriarchal norms, and unequal gender power dynamics."

FSU Assistant Professor Patricia Homan developed a new structural sexism approach to the study of gender inequality and health.  Her approach, published 2019 in the American Sociological Review, goes beyond sexist mistreatment by individuals to examine how the degree of systematic gender inequality in power and resources — i.e. structural sexism — in a society can impact people’s health. This was the same focus as the above-referenced NIH study. Both point to the effects on children and society, not just women. "Structural sexism can be evident in major social institutions, such as the government and the economy, in interpersonal interactions and relationships, such as marriages and in individuals’ beliefs and identities." The effects in government were pointed out quite well by Rep. Porter. Professor Homan came to the same conclusion about more progressive policies to reduce it's impact. “The first thing we need to realize is that gender inequality in the United States is not only a human rights issue, but also a public health problem,” she said. “Therefore, gender equity policy is health policy.”

WHY DO I CARE?
You might wonder why I began with the issue of slavery and racism. Well, because one led to the other as a systemic societal issue, one that persists today. We will never eradicate racism, but we can educate. The same applies to any social issue, including gender inequality.

I have raised two daughters, one who just celebrated her 20th birthday, the other turns 23 in a few days. Both of them were adopted, my youngest daughter is African-American. That is why I liken the race and gender inequality issues. She faces them both and suffers micro-aggressions on the daily, even in progressive parts of Colorado. That's why I care deeply about these issues, but specifically the sexism that is so deeply entrenched into the fabric of our culture.

My daughters both have a problem with this patriarchal society, as do I. We finally have a woman of color in the White House, but it'll still be many, many years before one is elected to the highest office. As Rep. Porter points out, my daughters, especially my youngest, are so under-represented in Congress and at all levels of government, that it's no wonder.

Screen captured image from a YouTube video posted by Graduate School of Social Work - DU, titled "Power Privilege and Oppression," uploaded six years ago

The history of humankind, as we've been taught for eons, was pushed and pedaled by the patriarchy. They have controlled the narrative, from the time of the ancient sages until the present. We've been force fed a whitewashed, male-dominated version of human history. Why did it take until 2016's "Hidden Figures" film with Tom Hanks for most of us to learn that black women were behind our successful lunar missions at NASA??? Their stories, by and large, are untold in the history books. Harriet Tubman was one of the exceptions in history class, and not the rule. How many female heroins does the Bible exalt? Exactly, very few. The Judeo-Christian worldview for all of time has been one of patriarchy. God, the giver of life, has always been portrayed as an old, white man. Why does God possess a gender? And why would we assume his race? Jesus was born of a Virgin Middle Eastern woman OF COLOR! He was a man of color. Seems kind of silly that we've been pedaled a patriarchal view even in Sunday School.

I've fought hard against these stereotypes and have encouraged my girls, likewise. They grew up to be feminists just by their observations of the world. I merely joined them when they were old enough to make these judgments about society for themselves. And because I don't want them to suffer the inequality of old, nor for their potential daughters to grow up in a patriarchal society, I've pushed for more gender equality and been an outspoken advocate of same...for my daughters and granddaughters benefit. Men have ruled the narrative--the church, government and history--for quite long enough.

"White people are scared to death right now, particularly white males. They are scared to death they are going to lose their power in the future, and they are," says renowned race relations teacher Jane Elliott. "If you want to be treated well in the future, treat people well in the present."

NEVER EVER TRUMP!

I grew up in the Heartland of America, in a Reagan Republican household, believing unions are bad for business, Democrats are bad for the economy and that "the Commies" were our number one enemy.

Fast forward forty years and I'm looking at those ideologies a whole new way. I no longer believe any of those tenets of Republicanism. I don't think Reagan did anything good for this country. His "trickle down" economics policy is a big fat bust that I now call "trickled on," since most of us in the middle classes--upper, middle and lower middle class--got pissed on and pissed off. He was just another flip-flopper (big time Democrat and union leader in Hollywood turned rich, white Republican and union buster), who pandered to Middle America and their blue collar work ethic and Protestant virtues. He gave rise to the whole Moral Majority and politicization of the American pulpit for which we can now thank him because we have a militant alt-right movement where Neo-Nazis have found a home in the Christian Nationalist extreme neo-conservative right. It's disgusting.

Oh and enemy number one is no longer Russia. On that point, I'll bet Reagan, and all those who supported him, like my parents, are rolling over in their graves. What was the point of the Cold War and all those drills spent hiding under classroom desks??

The thing is, the Grand Ol' Party can no longer claim moral superiority when the candidate they clamor behind is a known rapist, misogynist, homophobe and xenophobe who now has 34 felony convictions to his name. His immoral behavior has racked up more criminal charges than a mob crime family. The Trump Crime Syndicate has sent countless among it's ranks to prison, most recently, their Minister of Propaganda, Steve Bannon. But the "moral majority," Christian Nationalists on the extreme right could GIVE TWO SHITS!!! They just want to see Hillary Clinton and the Bidens locked up for imagined crimes for which they have ZERO evidence.

President Joe Biden, on the other hand, quietly observes his faith and attends church every Sunday with his wife, whom he didn't cheat on. His Christian virtue and morals are on display daily--in his actions, his social media posts, his White House demeanor. You won't find ketchup stains on the wall of his White House. You won't see him throwing virtual temper tantrums on a money-losing social media platform he had to set up after getting banned from all others. You also won't see him mocking our veterans, POWs, the disabled, his political opponents (or threatening them, for that matter). Yet the "moral majority" right want to sling all the mud they can at the ACTUAL Christian, not the Bible-hawking pretend one. They'd rather prop up the immoral, orange buffoon, as their beloved cult leader.

But that's just what the alt-right has become, a cult. They DO NOT SPEAK for the entirety of the Republican party! That's where they are about to get blindsided in 2024.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post.

If I were to switch my allegiance back to the conservative right and the GOP, it would be to one of these "Never Trump" sects of the fractured (beyond repair?) Republican party.

THE LINCOLN PROJECT

Founded by "former Republican strategists, The Lincoln Project is dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. Since our launch in December 2019, The Lincoln Project has played a unique role in American politics. We entered the political arena with two stated objectives: first, to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box in 2020. (Done.) The second was to ensure Trumpism failed alongside him. We understand that the real fight against Trumpism is just beginning and we’re committed to seeing it through. Our democracy depends on it." (from their website).

REPUBLICANS FOR THE RULE OF LAW

"The American experiment in self-government can only survive if we all agree to abide by the laws and rules we make together. That means everything from election outcomes to jury verdicts to court decisions. Republicans for the Rule of Law hold fast to the principle that no one is above the law, from the average citizen to the president of the United States." This is what their website says on it's homepage below a quote from John Adams, a Deist NOT a Christian, per se, though the Library of Congress website says his faith remained a mystery to most. "Republicans for the Rule of Law is a group of life-long Republicans dedicated to defending the institutions of our republic and upholding the rule of law."

REPUBLICAN ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

Their About Us page says, "On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked by radical Trump supporters who were attempting to overturn a  fair election. The attackers were directly incited by Trump and the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Congress who had been falsely claiming, for months—and in the immediate moments before the attack—that the election had been stolen from Trump." They formed in May 2020 to produce a $10 million advertising campaign to ensure that Trump is not elected ever again. They vowed more recently to hold Republicans accountable for the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol.

NEVER TRUMP

The New York Times reported, "In March 2021, one survey indicated that five factions of Republican voters had emerged following Trump's presidency..." and the first listed was the Never Trump Movement, made up of moderate conservatives who do not support the previous president. And even before his bid in 2016, there had been a growing divide in the GOP between establishment old-timers and small-government Tea Party new comers. It was that growing faction of anti-establishment, conspiracy theorists with a huge distrust of government that launched sites like Q'Anon and became the base of the Trumpist or MAGA Republicans. The factions became even greater after the January 6th insurrection, a debacle of epic proportions that could have led to our second civil war.

Wikipedia has a vast list of former Trump administration officials who endorsed President Joe Biden because they, too, are now Never Trump supporters.

Newsweek reported in late March of this year, "PAC Republican Voters Against Trump spent $50 million on 100 videos recorded by anti-Trump Republicans explaining why they no longer support him." That article also reported that in the previous month, "Trump's ex-chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, published an opinion piece for The Hill pleading for a 'viable' third-party candidate in the 2024 presidential election." That's how fractured they have become. Some members of Congress have vacated seats over their disgust with their own party, like Colorado GOPer Ken Buck. He claims others will follow suit, giving their party less of a majority in the House. The Newsweek article still doesn't believe in the viability of a third party in this country, nor do I.

Groups like those listed above, who are more level-headed, non-conspiracy-supporting conservatives, grew like wildfire in the wake of what they saw as an attack on our Republic. They have actively campaigned AGAINST THEIR OWN PARTY LEADERS to ensure that Trump never gets re-elected. So yes, I would align myself with the Never Trump factions if I were ever to register again as a Republican (extremely unlikely).

My point in all this IS... that MAGA GOPer's are so drunk on the koolaid, so blind with tunnel vision and brainwashed by Fox, Newsmax and Lindell TV (and greed) that they don't even see how divided their own party is. How is a house divided ever going to stand? In more immediate terms, how do they expect to maintain control of Congress or win back the White House???

The Democrats need to grow a spine and quit calling for Biden to step down. He's their best chance at defeating a convicted criminal with only a PERCENTAGE of his own party behind him. We already know that the majority of Americans are center to left of center and would vote Democrat by a landslide if they would just vote. But the alt-right knuckleheads think they'll sweep the polls this November when their own party, a minority in America, isn't even on the same page. It'd be laughable if it just weren't so damn sad.

Democrats need to get their shit together, mobilize their base and get them to the polls, PERIOD. Get behind the nominee and incumbent President, despite how he comes across on TV or in debates. Hell, Reagan was in the early stages of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease when he was re-elected in the 1980s. Nancy propped him up in just the same way Dr. Jill Biden has her husband. We can do this, EASILY! We need to rally behind the moderate conservative Republicans and our OWN FREAKIN' PARTY and get the job done this November.

THE FUTURE OF OUR DEMOCRACY IS AT STAKE HERE!!!

Even our own Supreme Court Justices see this! Hell, Justice Sotomayor wrote in her recent dissent that she FEARS for our democracy. This isn't hyperbole, this shit is real! Do we WANT another civil war on our hands? Because that's where this country is headed.

We should make this our mantra, then:

NEVER EVER TRUMP!

***UPDATE: Here’s a great video just released to underscore this post:

The Smell of Bacon

Just look at this picture. You can smell it, can't you?

There's nothing quite like the smell of bacon. That salty, sizzly goodness, especially fried to a crispy dark brown in an iron skillet, is one of the best smells and flavors around. Maybe it's my pioneer Indiana roots, iron skillets used to cook salt pork over an open fire in the hearth of a log cabin, the abundance of pork, raised in Southwestern Indiana, packed and shipped to far away ports, like New Orleans...

Yep, I have an affinity for bacon, especially thick cut, meaty bacon. The fat has to be brown and crispy. If it's springy and chewy, I gag. I'll eat it cut to any thickness, but I prefer the thicker cuts.

The smell of it frying in the morning immediately takes me back in time.

My dad was a breakfast connoisseur, often getting up early to make it for himself or the fam. Bacon, spam, mush, eggs, potatoes and such were typically on the menu. If you don't know mush, you don't have Appalachian roots (I see ya Kentucky and Southern Indiana!). But the smell of bacon often reminds me of early childhood and dad on the weekends in the kitchen. Mom liked to sleep in.

My Uncle John would be the first adult up on trips to our Sullivan, Indiana, cabin. I'd be sleeping on the cool sheen of Grandma Doyle's old couch in the living room and on the other side of the bar, Uncle John would be banging around in the kitchen. I'd hear the iron skillet come out and soon the sound and smell of bacon! That would rouse me from sleep the quickest. The smell of bacon reminds me of those cool, musty mornings in that old cabin, Dad and Uncle Al asleep on old Army cots on the screened porch, kids sprawled about the floor in sleeping bags, the smell of the smoldering fire pit wafting through the open windows. There was dampness from the swampy land Grandpa Doyle purchased for the family cabin, a low spot on Greenbriar Lake, a spring-fed strip mine pit, abandoned in the late 40's/early 50's.

There were countless mornings at my house, cooking breakfast for my girls, bacon first into the skillet before scrambling eggs or making muffins, toast or biscuits. Thanks to my Dad, I've always been a fan of breakfast. First thing when I get up, the coffee is brewing and I'm getting food out of the fridge. My girls would often wake to that glorious smell. It signifies some of the simplest, yet happiest memories for me of fatherhood. And when we'd go to the family cabin, I'd be the one up early banging around the kitchen, looking for that old skillet. My girls would be asleep on inflatable mattresses just long enough for their short bodies, built-in Disney Princess sleeping bags on top. The couch long gone, along with the interior walls, my ex and I would have just slept through the night on an inflatable mattress of our own. A day of fishing, swimming, exploring and rowing would usually begin with the smell of bacon and that smoldering firepit just outside the cabin. Sometimes, I'd even regnite the coals and cook out there over the open flame.

That brings me full circle to my pioneer roots.

Our cabin, built by Dad's father, was about two counties north of where Mom's family, my pioneer ancestors from the East Coast, settled circa 1811. In those days, rough hewn logs from recently felled trees were notched and placed, like Lincoln Logs, into a rectangular shelter, fireplace at one end for heat and for cooking. I can imagine my 5th great uncles banging around with the iron skillet and setting some salted pork or smoked bacon in to start sizzling to perfection.

That smell, tops among all other food smells (garlic being a close second), is what takes me right back to my childhood, to the cabin, to fatherhood and makes me very happy. The payoff, the thick, crispy breakfast meat, is the end result every time. Paired with a couple of over-medium eggs and skillet potatoes, maybe an English muffin hot and buttered, is one of my favorite meals, so good I'd eat it three times a day!

One year back...a retrospective

I posted to Facebook on May 30 that I was about to celebrate one year since returning to my happy place--Fort Myers Beach, FL. It was May 30, 2023, that my brother and I loaded what I had left since leaving Evansville (and most of my things) and made a road trip south. We drove down Interstate 65 from the southside of Indianapolis (Wannamaker, to be exact) all the way to Panama City Beach, taking U.S. 231 out of Montgomery, AL, to the white sand shores of the Florida Panhandle. We landed at my sister, Heidi Jacob's, new place that evening.

Wasting no time on May 31, we travelled down I-10 and made a stop in Tallahassee. I spent many years in the Capital City, starting my adult life, going to college, gaining employment and beginning a family there (1986-2006; 2014-2020). My brother, 10 years my junior, spent some of his formative years, 1986-89, in a three-bedroom apartment. We drove through the old complex where we once lived, then toured campus and several areas of town, before re-starting our journey to SWFL.

It was after dark the night of the 31st last May, that he and I pulled onto a dark and desolate barrier island still marked by devastation. There was an uneasy, eerie feeling as we drove under the crosswalk at Margaritaville and south down Estero Blvd. The place looked like a ghost town, the shells of buildings and piles of debris everywhere. Not many street lights were in operation at the north end, so we drove slowly down that dark, desolate road. Making the turn at Connecticut St and into the Beach Baptist property, it still felt very surreal. Knocking on Pastor Shawn's door at 9:30 at night, a surprise visitor with a brother he'd never even met, was equally as surreal.

He embraced me like a brother (which he has been since 2011) and instructed me where to store my things and that "work begins at 9:00," under the tent. I learned the next day that the church had just erected the tent and had moved most of what was stored under the damaged church building into it. My job began promptly at 8:30 June 1st, helping Jerry Warren and a few volunteers that morning move pallets, break down boxes and get the place organized. They were reopening their food pantry and disaster resource center and setting up a temporary worship center under the tent. I helped there through the summer heat and made lasting friendships.

At the end of our workday, I ventured over to the beach for the second or third time since my arrival the night before. I couldn't believe I had awakened that day on MY BEACH!!! I headed over from the tent, sweaty, a trucker cap hiding my wet, disheveled hair, and made a video for my daughters to let them know I was safe and sound.

My beard, as you can see in the above video, was epic! I kept that for several months until a female friend told me how badly it aged me. Good thing I shaved it, too, as my girlfriend doesn't care for it...AT. ALL! (And honestly, I was starting to look like Captain Caveman, LOL!)

Fast forward almost four months and we were preparing for the first anniversary of Ian on September 28, 2023. I'd met Jenn Turbeville while volunteering at the church. We sat down in July for our first extended conversation, which turned into an FMB Islander interview, about the commemoration to be held that day, and became REVIVE THE VIBE.

So I should back up a bit...

I was serving under the big, hot tent in early July when the thought occurred to me that, other than Beach Talk Radio, no one was really covering island news. I had once worked for the Island Sand Paper, an FMB-specific weekly, a decade ago. I decided I would start telling the island's stories once again, so I started the online paper, the FMB Islander.

Back to September 28th, and the festivities were underway at Bayside Park and in the last two blocks of Old San Carlos Blvd. in the island's "downtown district." I'm enjoying a beverage as I walk through a lively crowd at Wahoo Willie's. I get pulled over to a bayside-facing table by an old friend, a dear friend from Indiana who's lived down here in the Iona area for decades! She informed me, when I asked about my ex, that she was available after getting out of a 10-year marriage.

Hold the phone. Come again??

That planted the seed that months later took root and grew into a beautiful new relationship. But in the meantime, I reconnected with several old friends, including my partner in crime (and beach misfit and fatherhood) Christopher Alward. We became reacquainted while he was recovering from a leg amputation just below his knee. Around Thanksgiving 2023, he lost his other leg and I spent some time at Gulf Coast Medical Center with him. He kept me abreast of the ex's whereabouts as they'd kept up a decades-long friendship through social media and occasional interaction. She'd helped him and his neighbors out in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

Alward took me in when I needed a place to stay and he needed companionship and someone to help out with his dog, cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc. While I was living in his off-island apartment, I reached out by text to the only number I had for Lynn Ann Farber, the woman I'd left on Mango St, FMB, February 13, 2014. It was months before she'd respond that the old Fort Wayne, IN, area code number was still her cell number.

I was dealing with health issues at the time and our paths had crossed so many times, including the hospital in late January. She'd dropped a patient to the ER where I was staying to await my pacemaker surgery Jan. 25, 2024. She contemplated coming to find me and check on my condition. She was worried about me, but I was completely unaware. I had thought I might run into her there. From her profile picture on Facebook, I'd known that she'd been working in EMS as an emergency medical technician for Lee County.

It wasn't two weeks late that she finally reached out for conversation, first by text from that old number I still had in my phone. Apparently, that wasn't all I'd saved for her. There was still unresolved business and a lot of love left in my heart from all those years ago (nearly a DECADE TO THE DAY!). It was February 10th when our text conversation at 4:45 p.m. turned into hours of phone conversation and a desire to reconnect. Two days later, she was at the apartment with Alward and I sharing drinks, memories and laughs. It felt like the decade between the three of us had magically vanished in mere hours. She wasn't even IN our apartment before the laughter over some shenanigans had begun.

Lynn and Alward shenanigans
at Danny's Saloon in March

I met her in the parking lot and she was rummaging through her work gear in the SUV. Within minutes, I was doubled over laughing with her as I donned her jumpsuit, helmet and EMS gear, including blue latex gloves. The only thing that wouldn't fit me (or make it into that apartment) were her work boots. They were too small for my size 12.5 feet. The connection was instantaneous. The minute we locked eyes, it was over for the both of us.

Not long after, I was living with her back on the island, which I had missed for MONTHS by that point! Our love affair restarted, we boasted that we were rewriting the end of our story. We still are.

To recap, I returned to this beach the night of May 31, 2023. The next morning, I wasted no time grafting myself back into my first beach family, the Cristsers and their Beach Baptist family. I met my newest sister, DebyRoxane, that first morning and my brother, Jerry Warren, June 1st. He started bossing me around immediately and we joked about his OCD way of doing things and his "Illinois engineering" degree. LMAO!

In the first week, I reconnected with my musical brother, Craig Nelms, who had me volunteering at the church's food pantry (Choice Market) way back in 2011. So many new friends were made under that tent in the first two months I was here. I even joined Nelms' band "Simply-Fi" in August and played through some serious health concerns until mid-January. It was a blast! I didn't even own a set of drums anymore, but we worked out a solution.

Fred Johnson, the band's guitarist through December, became another musical brother and we remain in contact to this very day. In fact, he tagged me yesterday in a comment on FB. So many others, like Ollie Curan, Howie Hoffman, Turtle Rick, Jenn (who I mentioned above) and "Aunt" Pat, island icons, became instant friends. I found a home on the island among them, moving into a party house behind the Catholic Church until I moved in with Chris Alward, circa Thanksgiving Weekend.

So many great memories have been made this last year and three weeks on the beach, at places like Rude Shrimp, Wahoo Willie's, Danny's Saloon, The Whale, Times Square...

My work writing and reporting for the FMB Islander has introduced me to so many more friends than I would have otherwise met. Going to the Tiki Bar at the Lighthouse for NFL Sundays introduced me to more Hoosiers (and Colts fans) than I even knew existed on this island! I also met lots of Packers, Vikings, Bears and Browns fans, too! This island is made up mostly of Midwesterners! I've even made connections to my Indianapolis high school (our football coach's sister lives mid-island). 

It has been a joy to relocate back to this seven-mile stretch of paradise. If I ever leave here, it'll either be for a tiny houseboat in Key West or by body bag. Period.

SERIOUSLY? This is the thanks I get?

There are many reasons why people might hurt those they love, including intentional and unintentional actions. Some reasons might include:

• Emotional baggage: This could include guilt, self-loathing, or shame.
• Fear: This could be a fear of intimacy, losing someone, or being unmasked.
• Control: This could be a desire to assert control or independence.
• Boundaries: This could be testing relationship boundaries.
• Expectations: This could be expecting a lot from the other person.
• Overreaction: This could be overreacting to a perceived slight.
• Self-destructive behavior: This could include lying, cheating, or betraying.
• Responsibility: This could be the responsibility that comes with being in love, where words and actions can have a big impact on someone else. (From Google AI)

"Once you've triggered them, they are going to resort to the same pattern behavior and speak from their trauma, not from their truth." ~Me

It's a sad fact of life that we shit all over the people closest to us. We take for granted the people in our lives, especially our families, because they've always been there for us. As close as you can possibly get to unconditional love in this life is with those in your inner circle. And because they typically won't leave you, they suffer your insufferability. They put up with all your shit.

I've been getting shit on a lot lately.

And I hate being taken for granted. I'm a nice guy and a good person, so it happens WAY too often. But it only hurts to your core when it's done by those you love most in this world.

In recent weeks, I've had reason to call out some pretty bad behaviors in those closest to me. Pattern behaviors by some, just outright bad behavior by others. And each time, it was turned around on me and I ended up getting viscously attacked.

The attacks seemed particularly viscous because of their nature, the reason and the target.

I didn't do anything to bring on the attacks. Like I said, I was merely making observations and pointing out particularly bad behaviors, acts of self-sabotage and such.

It takes a real man to own up to his own shortcomings. I've done that since my early 30's. I've been pretty transparent about my issues, my human faults and bad behaviors. I've tried to practice humility, like all the spiritual gurus have taught from Confucius through Jesus and Mohammed. I've blogged about it here DOZENS of times. It's central to my evolving faith and personality. So why can't I expect that same self-awareness from those I love most??

It seems to escape them, despite them all being intelligent, reasonably mature individuals.

But instead of owning their bad behaviors, they felt it necessary to project and deflect by lashing out at me and attacking my character. I'm sorry, what? My character didn't suddenly change because you perceive that I'm attacking you! The good person that you know me to be didn't suddenly become evil incarnate just because you don't like what I said. How about taking a LOOK IN THE MIRROR and see if what I pointed out is true. They KNEW that it was and that's why it bothered them so bad.

I get it. People don't like to be called on their shit. It's embarassing, humbling, uncomfortable, inconvenient...and can seem like an attack, especially to those who can't take one ounce of criticism. Often those who've suffered CPTSD brought on by childhood trauma can't take any criticism AT ALL! It's ALWAYS perceived as an attack.

But I didn't wake up one day and just decide to go on the offensive and start attacking those that I love. Why would I do that? I'm not a self-sabotager. I'm self aware. I'm the same person that all of those closest to me learned to love and admire. My behavior isn't at issue.

Still, I call out the behavior, not in a mean, vindictive or judgmental way, just as a conscious observer of those whom I care about most. Do I want them to live their lives in denial, repeating the same dangerous patterns or repeating the same false narrative so many times that they actually believe it? HELL TO THE NO!!!

If I love you, I'm not going to sit idly by and watch you spiral out of control, crash to the ground and burn to death! That's not what loving individuals who care about you DO!

But in the moment, after being called out, they can't be expected to behave rationally or deal with your criticism like a mature adult. Once you've triggered them, they are going to resort to the same pattern behavior and speak from their trauma, not from their truth. (QUOTE THAT!)

I've experienced this many times. I let things go until they become untenable, then I choose to bring receipts to the conversation where I sit them down and say, "Hey, enough. This is harmful behavior. It's hurting both of us. And that's not okay."

Then my character gets assassinated?

I'm sorry, in what universe is that acceptable?

Why am *I* now on the defensive? Did I put a gun to your head and say "mistreat me?" Did I do the bad behavior that I'm calling out? Is it my pattern being observed and corrected? NOPE! I did nothing but try to love you and bring some awareness to your behavior, as difficult as it was for me to do so after years of observation.

I'll be bluntly honest here. I was triggered most recently by my own daughters. The bad behavior I called out was snubbing me on Father's Day. Instead of an "I'm sorry" or "I forgot, my bad," I got a litany of excuses as to why I DON'T DESERVE to be honored and how I NEVER EARNED the title nor the respect.

EXCUSE ME?

I didn't choose you, adopt you and raise you?

If that really wasn't me all those years, in all those photos and on the adoption paperwork. WHO THE FUCK WAS IT??!?!?!

And so they chose not only to disrespect me on the one day of the year devoted to fatherhood, they viscously came at me with a distorted version of reality and a bunch of unfounded, personal attacks...attacks on my character.

I was devastated yesterday by their words. It cut me TO THE ABSOLUTE CORE of my being! And I did nothing wrong. I merely pointed out that I'd been dissed and hurt by their actions.

I'm not allowed to have a voice? Or feelings about it?

I sure let them have a voice. All day, I put up with their verbal abuse and baseless allegations, none so serious that I couldn't post here, but I'm not trying to air the details of our "dirty laundry." It's just typical, I'm an adult now and I know everything nonsense that we've all experienced. Our parents were the devil, mistreated us daily and are the source of EVERYTHING that is wrong in our lives. (Cry me a river, kids! I have the t-shirt.)

But, seriously, of all the people in their inner circle, who loved them, I was the LEAST toxic or harmful to them. I didn't shit all over them. But they sure did me!

I've been their punching bag for a number of years. They know that I can take it. I'm still going to absorb the blows and love them to my core...as I always have.

They had a great dad in me.

I always loved them, told them so, showed them with my actions and even expressed how lucky I felt to have "won the Dad lottery." If they heard that last part once, they heard it HUNDREDS OF TIMES!

And not only do I have receipts for this, I have a long fucking line of witnesses who know me personally, who saw the devoted, loving father I have always been to my two daughters.

THAT'S why this hurt so bad. It was unfounded, uncalled for and untrue. I know the person I am. I know the person THEY HELPED me to become. Being a dad is the single most important thing I've done in my life that's taught me the most valuable lessons about life and who I really am. I've always felt that way about being their Dad. Best. Decision. Ever!

But they don't get to speak my truth for me. They don't get to now, after 20 and 23 years of loving them to my core, rewrite history. I was NOT NOR EVER CLAIMED TO BE a perfect person or father. I am a flawed human being. But I did a HELLUVALOT better than my dad and his dad before him. And as time went by, I became an even better dad and version of myself. ASK. ANYONE! As I said, I have a LONG LINE of witnesses who can testify.

As to the others in my inner circle who have hurt me recently, just know it speaks volumes about YOUR CHARACTER not mine. So proceed with your character assissination of me if it makes you feel better. I won't stand for it, though. I KNOW WHO "I AM." It is a reflection of your human flaws and not my own. As I said, I've owned my shit. Now own yours. I'm not going to keep pointing it out.

And in conclusion, if anyone reading this would like to see real change in their life and experience some different results:. 

DO. SOMETHING. DIFFERENT.

Repeating the same pattern behavior and expecting different results is a long-held urban dictionary definition of INSANITY. Doing the same shit, expecting different results. How does that work in any recipe. Going to put bananas in this bread, follow the recipe to a "T," but expect Pineapple Cake instead of Banana Bread. With or without walnuts, that IS NUTS! You get out what you put in. "Same shit, different day" routines don't make different results EVER. Period. You cut a dress from the same pattern and 100% of the time, you get the same result. That floral print sundress isn't going to become a Versace-wannabe ball gown. Do something different. Don't follow your pattern. 

Waxing Political…Part Two

He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. Luke 21:8 (red letters)

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Cor. 11:3 (a follow-up to 1 Cor. 6:9 which warns that “wrongdoers” will never inherit God’s kingdom)

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Gal. 6:7

Revelation gives multiple warnings to the faithful not to be deceived by “the beast,” the devil” or others. Too many American Christians have not heeded the warnings, have not discerned or rightly judged the fruit. DJT’s fruit has borne consequences. He is reaping EXACTLY that which he’s sown. DO NOT BE DECEIVED. But church people are not always the brightest bulbs in the bunch or the sharpest tools in the shed, which makes them easy marks for sleazy, slimy business men (snake oil salesmen) like DJT…or the antichrist.

Look at the MAGA(t) minions. These “master race” bigots run around in their “Trump is my savior” T-shirts, draped in Trump flags, stumped by softball questions given by local reporters, that befuddled look in their eyes. They could no more clarify their position on GOP talking points than the man on the moon. They simply regurgitate talking points from the propaganda machine, Fox News, Q’anon message boards or talk in the church fellowship hall. Ignorant and uninformed sheeple who drink the orange koolaid and wouldn’t care if their cult leader were serving time for murder on death row. It wouldn’t disqualify him. They’d rally behind him, send him their money and buy his Bibles.

It’s nuts. And they would have you believe that they are “the silent majority” about to sweep the polls in November. If that WERE the case, why hasn’t DJT ever won in a landslide? Why has he never even garnered a majority of the popular vote??? WHY, pray tell, did he need to manufacture votes or otherwise interfere in the electoral process?

THE TRUTH IS…

The GOP is splintered.

Republicans do NOT speak with one voice. There are plenty of NEVER TRUMPers inside their party. Look at The Lincoln Project who has made it their sole aim to KEEP HIM FROM OFFICE! More recently, Republicans For The Rule of Law also do not support DJT. Their latest video, “Goodbye, and Good Riddance,” shows his face with #ConvictTrump over the top. The website of Republican Accountability bears the headline, “We’re reminding Americans that we still need accountability for January 6th.”

MAGA(t)s do NOT represent the whole of the party, though listening to the leaders on Capitol Hill you’d never know it. Those dirtbags are so addicted to power and so desperately want to hold onto it, they see no other way than to cast their lot with the minions. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

Don’t fall for their smoke-and-mirrors, snake oil sales pitch, Fox (Faux) News talking points. They are killing the Grand Ol’ Party, the Party of Lincoln.

DJT is closer to the antichrist than THE CHRIST!

Do not be deceived.

Waxing political...a common sense rant

I haven't posted much political content this year. I've been more focused on my health and reconnecting with an old flame. But with the recent conviction of Donald J. Trump and all the fanfare on social media, I felt the need to say something on this blog.

I was walking home from the grocery store on my island and ran across a work pickup with this window cling on the back of the cab. "Impeach Biden," is a ludicrous slogan (and pipe dream) meant to disparage the current president, the one who won the 2020 vote legally and fairly. He's NOT the one who interfered with the election! The other doofus is. He's not the one under investigation for criminality inside and outside the White House. There aren't even any TRUMPED up charges against him upon which to base an impeachment trial. That's what makes this window cling ridiculous. It is pointless and holds no merit.

IT IS IRONIC, THOUGH...

Ironic in the fact that the FORMER president actually underwent TWO impeachment hearings in the halls of Congress. Not once, but twice. No trumped up charges, only allegations supported by eyewitnesses and mountains of evidence. In my eyes, the douchebag WAS impeached.

He was also charged in a civil suit of sexual assault. He was convicted of paying off porn star Stormy Daniels after an illicit affair with her while current wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant with his child. Michael Cohen, who handled the hush money payoff, testified under oath that when he asked the former president if he was worried about the wife finding out, the orange buffoon's response was that he wouldn't be on the market long. His own wife, like every woman (or person), in the raging narcissist's life is 100% expendable. Once they aren't providing his "narc supply" (the goal of every narcissist to get their ego needs met), they are of no use to him. He just didn't want Ms. Daniels selling her story to a publisher, the press or the highest bidder. It would look bad for him.

NOT WITH HIS FOLLOWERS...

Nope, the slimy, curmudgeonly MAGA(t) masses who lap up his drivel and love every assault, sexual or otherwise, didn't think it looked bad at all. Cheat on your wife. Pay off the porn star. Laugh it off with your typical locker room vernacular. They just love their felons! I mean, their Christian Nationalist/Fascist Dictators! They'll continue to buy his Bibles, his hats, his lies and financially back his campaign for re-election this year. MORONS!

The 34 felony convictions did not bother them one iota, many of them Bible-believing Christians. The assault on our Constitution, the assault of women (multiple), the locker room talk, the illegal business dealings (his CEO is a convicted felon, too), the attempted coup to stop the peaceful transition of power and his inability to quote even ONE SCRIPTURE from the Bibles he's selling all points them to the logical conclusion that he's a moral guy, a Christ-like person.

UMMMMM...

Excuse me while I puke! Didn't Jesus take a bullwhip and kick people out of the Temple, turning over tables and tongue-lashing the "bible salesmen" of his day? Peculiar. Aren't there New Testament Scriptures, and I'm thinking primarily in that last book, about the anti-Christ and how easily he dupes Christians and the ignorant, heathen masses in the "end times?"

Stupid memes like this have been circulating on social media to compare what Trump is going through (the justice system) to Jesus Christ (persecution as a leftist rabbi)

Yeah, the orange one doesn't favor Damien from The Omen films at all.

On the contrary, his duped minions have taken to social media in the weeks since his conviction ON 34 FELONY COUNTS to compare their evil cult leader to Jesus Christ, Himself!!! NO LIE! If I've seen the comparisons once on Facebook, alone, I've seen them a gazillion times! Excuse me, the stomach bile is in my throat again.

That, in itself, is blasphemy. Do these dolts even OPEN their Bibles??? I haven't opened one in years and I can see it plain as the nose on my face!

I've seen this one posted over and over to Facebook. I see it in my news feed and I immediately SNOOZE the person, at the very least.

You don't ADD TO or TAKEAWAY from the "inerrant word of god," so the fundamental faithful say. Yet, here's this known snake oil salesman adding the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence to the Holy Book. I mean, it makes perfect sense, since Christianity started on these shores all those years ago. Oh, wait, no that was the Middle East in about 80-120 A.D.

Christianity started as a Messianic sect of Judaism in the first century. The Bible was codified by the CATHOLIC CHURCH in the fourth century by a council of bishops (SHHHH! Most American Christians don't even know this and think the Catholics are heretics and demon worshippers!).

We are NOT a Christian nation, so Marjorie Taylor Knitwit can sit down with her nationalist dreams and STFU! Many of our founding forefathers were DEISTS, not necessarily Christian. They didn't set up our republic as any one religion. Pretty sure they mandated the separation of church and state, meaning religion has no seat at the table and governments can't interfere with religious practices. The two are to remain separate, but don't tell that the mega-church-pastoring, 501(c)3-protected billionaires who preach politics every week!

Religion is the opiate of the masses, it's been said.

History is bound to repeat itself.

We don't need to return America to her 1930's self. That's where the MAGA(t) morons get their moronic slogan--from 1930's Nazi propaganda when Hitler and the KKK were still popular among WASP-y Americans. They were duped back then, during the worst depression in history, that we were a great nation. Women, black citizens and those in the gay community didn't find it so great. History is written and rewritten by the rich, white elites in power, the same ones who've ALWAYS held the power. And if we don't learn from it--if we don't even know where the MAGA slogan came from--then we are doomed, as the prophets foretold.

Just quit with the Jesus comparisons, already! And quit shoving your narrow-minded, mega church mentality down all our throats. I could out-quote the Bible to most of you, ignorant hypocrites, buying Trump Bibles and backing the convicted rapist and felon! Jesus would label you a "brood of vipers."

I just think your ignorant, opiate-addicted, easily duped FOOLS!

There is no choice, in my mind, but to rebut and rebuke fascism in any and all forms, and support the guy who's been about our republic his whole life, dedicated his life to it, in fact. He's old. He's a career politician. SO F-IN WHAT??? You want four years of that convict and lunatic with the wispy, orange combover and spray tan???

ARE PEOPLE REALLY THIS STUPID?

Sorry, unfortunately, I know the answer.

LIFE THRU A TV LENSE

My parents grew up in the age of television, but those early TVs were black-and-white consoles and they portrayed WHITES ONLY doing very middle to upper class things. I even grew up watching reruns of the famous series from their generation, like Leave It To Beaver, My Three Sons and Father Knows Best. Those shows were produced by old, white dudes, the ones who ran Hollywood. The networks hired censors to ensure that messages stayed away from anything slightly controversial. It was white bread, milk toast, whitewashed PROPAGANDA! It was McCarthyism, red scare, homophobic, xenophobic, every phobic you can name. It was all “Jeepers, Wally!” and “Aw, knock it off, Beave!”

Then America experienced a cultural revolution. Shows like Love American Style, reflected the changing social mores. Family shows, like The Brady Bunch, showed a happy, blended family run by two divorcees. It was a far cry from June and Ward Cleaver. TVs were now in full color and in multiples in American households. We were about to become the MTV generation.

I would have never thought of The Brady’s as groundbreaking, but as I thought about it last night in bed, it really kind of was. In the 1970’s, we hadn’t seen single-parent families represented, nor blended families and certainly no same-sex couples.

Fast forward to the generation starting their families now. They grew up with Modern Families, where a gay male couple get married and adopt an Asian daughter. Long gone are the network censors, yet the Hollywood moguls are still mostly old and white. The diversity represented on cable, Internet and streaming series is GALAXIES from Leave It To Beaver!

Heck, I grew up wondering where the people of color were in television and movies. But save for another blog post on racial diversity. Social mores held so dear in the 1950s and 60s have long since been shattered. And those antiquated early series that were no more than corporate-sponsored propaganda are relics of that bygone era. Good riddance. Not everyone in America is rich and lily white.

But it’s those faux stereotypes that push otherwise well-meaning older folks to pine for the good ol’ days. What was so good about them? Ask an African American person who might have grown up in that bygone era, the child of poor share croppers. They were never represented on those black-and-white consoles.

What people of my parents’ generation don’t realize is that they were spoonfed propaganda for so long that they bought into it. Many of them grew up with blinders on. Many still CHOOSE to wear them. They don’t think gay male couples existed back then and wanted to live out in the open as now?

It’s ridiculous! There were middle class African American families living in American cities, too. But where were they represented in popular culture? It was whitewashed, McCarthy-like propaganda. And because old people WISHED it was really like Leave It To Beaver, they long to return America back to the 1950s.

Think about it.

My Health Scare - Three of Them!

I haven't written at all here about my recent health journey. It began last fall as I noticed breathing issues and lightheadness, plus heart palpatations at age 55 and a few weeks. I wrote it off as both age and stress. But in early November I was pet sitting in Fort Myers near FSW (the college) and riding my bike to the Publix Supermarket across from there on Summerlin. It was a casual ride of maybe half a mile. A sudden attack of lightheadedness as a result of shortness of breath made me stop in my tracks. Standing there straddling my bike, I was worried I might faint and hit my head on the sidewalk or concrete utility “pole” next to me.

That surprised, startled and scared the BEJESUS outta me! None of the previous symptoms had been that severe or sudden. I gathered myself and rode onto get groceries. It took 3 or 4 more episodes, the final one nearly sent me onto Gladiolus off my bike, a shooting pain up my left temple, to get me to the ER.

The photo above left is dated November 7, 2023, at Gulf Coast Medical Center. My good friend, brother and bandmate, Craig, prodded me for two days to go get checked out before driving my stubborn ass to the Ft. Myers hospital. He sat with me all day in the ER until I was assigned a room, through a litany of scans and tests, including an ultrasound of my legs.

The diagnosis was two deep vein thrombin (DVTs) in my legs, one with little chance of movement, and a small pulmonary embolism in my left lung. Two of them could have dislodged and sent me to an early grave. I was glad to have gone and gotten checked out. I really appreciated my brother (not by blood) for helping me out and laughing with me all day Nov. 7th. I was prescribed blood thinners and released.

Here I am upon release outside GCMC