All American Division

To family and friends, their spouses, mothers, fathers, partners, sons and daughters, to everyone who…

Gave up time in their lives to wear non-fashionable clothes and clunky boots, stand or sit for hours or days or weeks chilled to the bone or baking in the heat, sorted mail, drove a tank, fixed the damn tank more than they drove the tank, did more push-ups and pull-ups than humanly possible, drank way too much, learned to play poker, played in the woods and laughed, crawled through the darkest woods and tried not to crap your pants, experienced a boredom you felt would never end, watched the world around you erupt and covered your head and wished hard for that boredom again.

Thanks, dad.

Cried for friends you’d known for only a microsecond of their lifetime and would never see again, had friends cry over you, jumped out of planes, jumped lazily out of a plane and rolled along the back of its fuselage, learned about the range of human nature by experiencing it directly for two to three or four or five years, or all of your adult life, and have never forgotten the good, the bad, the ugly and the things you did, and you saw, and you’ll never quite understand.

To family and friends, and their spouses, mothers, fathers, partners, sons and daughters, to everyone who, in the course of their lives, lost family and friends, mothers, fathers, partners, sons and daughters.

For whatever you feel it was or wasn’t, for whatever you took with you or left behind. For knowing that when you’re in it, there is no partisanship, save for the everlasting connection between us because we were there, no matter where there was.

For understanding that there will always be people known as veterans, and for feeling the mix of pride and sadness knowing that there will always be veterans.

For all of it, from another one of you (that would be me), here’s to us, to those around us, and to those we wish were still here.

Sgt. Mike, 4/68 Armor, 82nd Airborne Division, ’72-’75

In his honor I’ve posted something special on my Scribd site. Last year I came across a 1986 interview I did with Art, something that had never been published, and which contains insights and stories that are as amazing now as they were when I first heard them.

I included some commentary about the interview and about myself as a writer way back then, and here’s a little something about the interview’s revelations:

“While there may now be an adequate collection of biographical information available, there wasn’t much if anything this revealing about Art’s life at the time. He shared intimate, at times deeply painful memories, recounting having been given up for adoption by his mother, his daughter’s suicide, his LSD therapy sessions, and his encounter with an Indian guru. That may have actually contributed to my inability to sell the final article, which I attempted to place with at least a half-dozen major publications. I don’t know where those boilerplate rejection letters are now, but I do recall that each of them had included a note from the editor as to how much everyone liked Gumby, but didn’t think the article was right for the publication.”

Happy birthday, Art.

Thanks to all.

It’s about one of the more volatile aspects of our society, recounting events leading to the day seven years ago when a paraplegic teenager from Northern California, with the assistance of his attorney and thousands of people around the country, attempted to purchase the assets of a gun manufacturer that had gone into bankruptcy to avoid paying the teen a record $24 million judgment.

Regardless how you feel about some of the issues, I believe you’ll find this
worth a read.

Here’s the link: http://lnkd.in/3vvkdU

Thanks so much and pass this on to anyone you wish.

The congressman’s answer did not include a yes or no. In fact, his answer included “what I’m in favor of…” and then described several things, including LOWERING the tax rate.

So she asked him again: “So, would you support higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations?” and again, a yes or no was not included in his answer, and he put that “lowering the tax rate” in his answer again.

Not too long ago, the big “O” on Fox, who I assume is their highest paid mouth, excoriated a senator who had said that the anchors and pundits on Fox continued to say that “people will go to jail if they don’t have health insurance”, and the big “O” didn’t just say, “no one has said that on Fox”, he pushed back with his usual bullying, dismissive, how-can-someone-be-so-stupid style and challenged the politician to name one person on Fox who had used the phrase. It was so over the top that, unlike many professional politicians, the dude was pretty much bushwhacked into silence.

And the next night, the big “O” had comedian Dennis Miller on, and he and “O” had a great chuckle over the whole thing.

And, of course, an organization that actually cares about this sort of thing put together a video of hosts, panelists and guests on Fox talking about how people would be put in jail if they didn’t have health insurance; not just a few mentions – over four minutes worth.

Now, the usual response from one side or the other to a post like this is to take the tac of the politician mentioned above who doesn’t seem to have the capacity, or the integrity, to reply to a question with “yes” or “no”; people will jump up on their chairs and yell about the other side doing the same thing, or point out that the real issue is (whatever). This post isn’t about political ‘discourse’, which is close to dead in this country in general, and simply ridiculous on Facebook (please, everyone, stop yelling at me; I already know who’s on which side, and Facebook, for the love of youknowho, is not the place to have any kind of rational discussion about, well, anything. I’m okay with friends and associates having divergent political, societal, and philosophical views).

This post is simply for people who should know better — as LISTENERS and as SPEAKERS — who continue to capitulate to the heat of the moment, who subjugate their humanity and integrity by taking an “if I don’t look at you, you don’t exist” approach to the people and world around them.

It’s not political, it’s “is this the kind of shit you really want to establish as a foundational example for the next generation to stand on?”

Really?

Here’s the video link. As to the example about a politician who can’t answer a simple question with yes or no, just watch any news program, any time…especially now.

If a someone you know calls you in the middle of the night or early in the morning, answer and talk until you have an inkling that they’re okay, and then call them later, and keep calling until you get them.

If someone you know seems to be down, different, pulling away, get ahold of them and ask, “Are you okay?” and then don’t be afraid to draw out more than they at first were willing to share.

If someone begins to say things that are a bit troubling, about their state of mind, or about the uselessness of the world, even if it’s supposed to sound like they’re ‘just saying stuff’, follow the instructions above.

If you’ve never understood why someone would think the world is no place to be, if you’ve often wondered why anyone who wondered that could be so weak, or why anyone would be unable to pull themselves out of a funky mood, then commit to finding out why yourself.

Being a true friend, being human, means more than just sharing laughs and good times, it means being aware that other people may have internal views and thoughts that you, in your lucky way, can’t ever see yourself having, and then being aware that being a good friend means looking at the world as if through someone else’s eyes.

And after you do that last part, contemplate how you would see you.

Finally, even someone who seems to have super powers, a lust for life, a passion for good times, and anything related to those, may look at themselves in life’s mirror and see nothing but darkness.

Be someone’s light in their darkness.

Canadian and thespian

Brian posted a video of Shatner doing a very patriotic, tears-welling-up version of O Canada. Since this is a blog about — sometimes loosely about — communications, I think that William Shatner’s interpretation of the anthem is, gosh, so moving it deserves inclusion here as a wonderful way to communicate one’s love of country…please go experience it yourself, you won’t be disappointed.

Don’t you (us?) Yanks have a holiday coming up? Have a great holiday, ‘a?

Toronto, 1984

Sure wish this wasn’t a commentary on another person I know who’s not with us anymore, but the timing of these things is beyond our control…

Clarence, gone.  I worked with him on tour and he was our neighbor for several years in Sausalito. I liked Clarence, as a guy to hang with, talk with, not just to to hang with because he was a ranking member of the music industry elite. Funny guy, not close to perfect, just like the rest of us, and one of those massive guys who moved gently through the world when he wasn’t on stage.

Over the years I’ve quoted something to many friends that he said when we talked about the death of Bill Graham, original king of concert promoters back when (it’s also included in my annual post about being on the road when John Lennon died). I was in Clarence’s condo, literally just down the slope from our backyard, and we were talking about Graham, and Clarence shook his head and said “Now what? What do we do now?”

He was lamenting that there would be no replacement. Yes, there were and will always be people who do whatever needs to be done, whether it’s concert promotion, champion quarterbacks, courageous cops, whatever, but there are a handful of people who aren’t replaceable, a package put together that can’t ever, ever be replicated.

I don’t like that we can now apply Clarence’s perspective to himself. It’s disheartening. Jesus, I’m so fortunate to have worked for and known, for a short time, the Big Man. My condolences to his family, Bruce, and especially the E Street Band.

Big Man gone.

Sucks.

Here’s a clip from YouTube that I was looking forward to including in my coming-soon web stories on my decade on the road. I never would have thought that twenty-five years ‘down the road’, I’d be able to point to my concert video work on the web. I’m certainly thankful for it now, even as I’m saddened by why I’m doing it.

This is from Toronto, 1984. I’m on the front-of-the-house camera.

Blow, Big Man, blow.

Mom's Voice

Lily Harkins died ten years ago today, but she lives on thanks to National Public Radio.

My sister Moe and I miss her, certainly, and we know she’s remembered fondly by everyone who knew her. Often when I think of her I hear my nieces doing their spot-on impersonations of her laugh.

She shouldn’t have died so young, and she shouldn’t have died of COPD. It took me years to understand, truly, that she had no choice in the matter, because she had started smoking cigarettes in her teens and by the time her lungs barely functioned anymore she and nicotine had a relationship that couldn’t be broken. I am thankful that I stopped giving her a hard time about it before she became ill, and I still carry some guilt at not recognizing sooner how serious her illness had become.

It’s all a little more poignant today because I’ve just recently collaborated on a how-to-quit smoking book with my good friend and fellow creative-guy Mick Anger. He quit after 40-ish years, on his own, using his own method; we’re shopping it around now. It almost certainly wouldn’t have helped my mom, for all sorts of different reasons, but I thought about her a lot while we worked on it.

So I don’t give people who smoke any grief, and wish only for them to find a way to quit. This is my yearly attempt to put into perspective what ‘can’ happen at the end of a smoker’s life. To describe my mom’s silence at the end of her life as ironic is an understatement, and the story presents that in a much better way than what I’m writing here.

Miss you mom. Moe, this one’s for me and you.

Here’s our mom, on the radio.

That’s slightly obtuse, that stuff above, I know. So without detailing my own thoughts and beliefs — although if you know me or have read previous posts, y’all know I’m a Buddhist…grumpy Buddhist, but Buddhist nevertheless — here’s a link to a story that energizes my belief in the ability of one person to stand against the onslaught of closed minds and less-than-critical thinking.

This is a brief story about a young man confronting the bullshit emanating  from the mouth of someone who has a media-following platform. I don’t care about her belief in creationism and intelligent design (ID), because I accept that the choice to believe or not to believe in evolution is based on faith, which has nothing to do with science and everything to do with “belief”, and I wrap all that in not caring at all about Ms. Bachmann. What I care about is that as she spouts off about her beliefs, she wraps her beliefs in the lies of who else believes and supports creationism and ID.

If you’re followed by and reported on by the media, you have a responsibility to not lie, especially if you’re positioning yourself to run for president.

Stop, stop, I know: what the frick am I thinking, have I listened to those who make zillions by puking out BS for the media, have I been living under a rock?

Hey, I know they do it, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have that responsibility, it just means they ignore it, collect the big bucks, and choose to turn their souls into coal.

So, I love this kid, who has stood up and taken on the responsibility of shouting loud enough to be heard; this kid is figuratively looking Bachmann in the eye and saying, “You just lied. I know it, you know it. Here’s how I know; if I’m wrong and you’re right, show me your stuff, because I’ve just shown you mine.”

It’s humans like him that make me think maybe we can actually hang on for a few more thousand years. One can only hope. Check it out here.