In Foxworld, inhabitants are not allowed to say Merry Christmas.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Jerry Lewis
In early July of 2012, 86 year old Jerry Lewis did a concert at FireLake Grand Casino in Shawnee, and that weekend he was also staying at my hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. His limo delivered him to our front drive around midnight or so - not too late, as the bar was still open and there were a lot of people in the lobby. He had mobility issues, so I was asked to go get our wheelchair. I drove him through the lobby into the #3 elevator, and I was soon very glad that we had gotten the larger of our three elevators, because we were joined by his entourage: six tall barrel-chested men with jovial demeanors reminiscent of the rat pack. I realized that the elevator was going to get very crowded very quickly, so I grabbed the wheels and picked up the chair, and scooted over into the corner.On the way up, the seven of them were joking with me about whether I was a bell boy or a bell man. I told them, "You guys are sweet, but I'm going to be fifty next Wednesday."
"Oh, you're just a baby!" they roared. I forgot until later that night that he had played a bellman two years before I was born.
We got to the 12th floor, and I wheeled Jerry to the Presidential Suite. I got them settled in the room, I told them how to get ahold of me if they needed anything, and bid them goodnight.
And the whole time I was with them, I was thinking, Wow. That's the first celebrity guest I ever lifted.
The photo was taken just three weeks later.
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Being Offensive in Foxworld
In Foxworld, saying Merry Christmas and God Bless America, owning guns, eating bacon, saluting the flag and thanking the troops are politically incorrect, and possibly offensive (not that those who live in Foxworld care if it is.)
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Off the Cuff
A few months ago I ran into an old friend, Sandra, at an art show, and we started talking about our mutual Facebook friends and their political views. I told her that I was planning to write a post on my blog entitled "Unvarnished, " giving my opinion on the election and the motivations of those that voted for Trump. I have that post in the works, but, as I pointed out to my friend Mark a while back, now that I'm on Facebook my blog hasn't been the place I go to make my daily observations. Instead, my posts are more like research projects, and it takes a lot of time to put one together. So far, "Unvarnished" is just a list of links to articles that help explain what I want to say, but not a word of my own has actually been written.
Today, I want to do something different. This post has no links, and no background research. It's just what I think. With the events in Charlottesville this past weekend, I just need to say some things. So, this is, essentially, my visceral reaction to today's news as it is presented on my Facebook page.
One thing that keeps coming up in various forms is the ridiculous Rewriting History argument, the idea that by tearing down statues of Robert E Lee, etc., is trying to hide the past and pretend it didn't happen. That's patently false. In Germany (and, yes, Germany is the ONLY reasonable comparison. As a former Atlanta mayor said, the Confederate flag is the American swastika,) they did not erect statues to Adolf Hitler and company sixty years after the fall of the Third Reich. They do not fly the flag of the Third Reich along with the current flag of Germany to "honor the past." In fact, tourists in Germany have been arrested this past week for performing the Nazi salute in public places. That's how strongly they feel about the past. What IS done is that there are several monuments to the victims of the Nazis, including the preservation of some of the places where they were tortured and killed. There are no monuments to honor the perpetrators of horrible crimes against humanity.
A friend of a friend made a joke, saying "WWRELD (What Would Robert E Lee do?)" If there is any truth to the article I read this week, what he did was say that it wasn't a good idea to keep remembrances of civil strife, but to do like other nations have done and put them in the past. According to the article, he was not buried in his Confederate uniform, as his family felt that that would be treason.
One friend seems to believe that there's some kind of double standard when it comes to linking politicians to their violent supporters, and to whether said politician/party/ideology is responsible for the violence, and whether they are pressured to denounce said violence.
I don't know how to relate this to real life.
To begin with, left wing violence, as far as I can tell, is an aberration. On the other hand, right wing extremism is a major concern for law enforcement across the country. While Islamophobes worry about whether some random refugee is going to be the next unibomber, this week a right wing extremist tried to blow up a building in downtown OKC, half a block from where I work --WHILE I WAS AT WORK!
Furthermore, Bernie Sanders did not encourage violence the way Trump has, which means that his allies did not have to defend, re-interpret, or ignore anything he might have said. Nor did he have to be pressured to condemn the violence committed by his supporter; he did so immediately, and without reservations. Trump, on the other hand, first gave a statement in which he chose his words carefully, so as not to offend the white supremacists or the neo-Nazis who believed that they were in Charlottesville to accomplish his agenda, and when he did finally bow to pressure to condemn the violence and the ideologies behind it, he did so like a hostage being forced to read a statement.
I'll probably get some reaction to the last two paragraphs from people who've been convinced that Black Lives Matter is a leftist terrorist organization for whom violence is the go to tactic. I was privy to a conversation between a hotel guest from Australia and one of our weekend policemen. The guest asked something (I wish I could remember what, exactly) about policing the black community, and the policeman's response was, "They're the ones committing all the crimes." I wish that I had been bold enough to interject that "they" were just the ones getting caught (and killed in inexcusable numbers,) and that there is a long and complicated history concerning institutionalized racism, white privilege, segregation, poverty, deprivation, and crime. I did make a mental note that this guy, this one policeman guy, is why Black Lives Matters exists. And I work with him periodically.
And finally...
Today, I want to do something different. This post has no links, and no background research. It's just what I think. With the events in Charlottesville this past weekend, I just need to say some things. So, this is, essentially, my visceral reaction to today's news as it is presented on my Facebook page.
One thing that keeps coming up in various forms is the ridiculous Rewriting History argument, the idea that by tearing down statues of Robert E Lee, etc., is trying to hide the past and pretend it didn't happen. That's patently false. In Germany (and, yes, Germany is the ONLY reasonable comparison. As a former Atlanta mayor said, the Confederate flag is the American swastika,) they did not erect statues to Adolf Hitler and company sixty years after the fall of the Third Reich. They do not fly the flag of the Third Reich along with the current flag of Germany to "honor the past." In fact, tourists in Germany have been arrested this past week for performing the Nazi salute in public places. That's how strongly they feel about the past. What IS done is that there are several monuments to the victims of the Nazis, including the preservation of some of the places where they were tortured and killed. There are no monuments to honor the perpetrators of horrible crimes against humanity.A friend of a friend made a joke, saying "WWRELD (What Would Robert E Lee do?)" If there is any truth to the article I read this week, what he did was say that it wasn't a good idea to keep remembrances of civil strife, but to do like other nations have done and put them in the past. According to the article, he was not buried in his Confederate uniform, as his family felt that that would be treason.
One friend seems to believe that there's some kind of double standard when it comes to linking politicians to their violent supporters, and to whether said politician/party/ideology is responsible for the violence, and whether they are pressured to denounce said violence.
I don't know how to relate this to real life.
To begin with, left wing violence, as far as I can tell, is an aberration. On the other hand, right wing extremism is a major concern for law enforcement across the country. While Islamophobes worry about whether some random refugee is going to be the next unibomber, this week a right wing extremist tried to blow up a building in downtown OKC, half a block from where I work --WHILE I WAS AT WORK!
Furthermore, Bernie Sanders did not encourage violence the way Trump has, which means that his allies did not have to defend, re-interpret, or ignore anything he might have said. Nor did he have to be pressured to condemn the violence committed by his supporter; he did so immediately, and without reservations. Trump, on the other hand, first gave a statement in which he chose his words carefully, so as not to offend the white supremacists or the neo-Nazis who believed that they were in Charlottesville to accomplish his agenda, and when he did finally bow to pressure to condemn the violence and the ideologies behind it, he did so like a hostage being forced to read a statement.
I'll probably get some reaction to the last two paragraphs from people who've been convinced that Black Lives Matter is a leftist terrorist organization for whom violence is the go to tactic. I was privy to a conversation between a hotel guest from Australia and one of our weekend policemen. The guest asked something (I wish I could remember what, exactly) about policing the black community, and the policeman's response was, "They're the ones committing all the crimes." I wish that I had been bold enough to interject that "they" were just the ones getting caught (and killed in inexcusable numbers,) and that there is a long and complicated history concerning institutionalized racism, white privilege, segregation, poverty, deprivation, and crime. I did make a mental note that this guy, this one policeman guy, is why Black Lives Matters exists. And I work with him periodically.
And finally...
Monday, August 14, 2017
Robert Reich on Tyranny
As tyrants take control of democracies, they typically do it in 10 ways.
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote, and that they lost the popular vote because of massive voter fraud.
2. Call anyone who opposes them “enemies,” including journalists and media outlets that criticize them, and accuse such journalists and outlets of spreading fake news.
1. Exaggerate their mandate to govern – claiming, for example, that they won an election by a landslide even after losing the popular vote, and that they lost the popular vote because of massive voter fraud.
2. Call anyone who opposes them “enemies,” including journalists and media outlets that criticize them, and accuse such journalists and outlets of spreading fake news.
3. Blame economic stresses on immigrants or racial or religious minorities, and quietly foment violence against them.
4. Quietly encourage domestic terrorists to use violence on defenders of democracy. Refuse to openly condemn such acts. Get manufacturers of guns and munitions to encourage such acts as well.
5. Communicate with supporters directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements (now called tweets).
6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.
7. Appoint family members and generals into high positions of authority.
8. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators, but express indifference if not defiance toward democratic leaders.
9. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from public office.
10. Count on average peoples’ confusion, fear, or apathy to allow all this to happen.
4. Quietly encourage domestic terrorists to use violence on defenders of democracy. Refuse to openly condemn such acts. Get manufacturers of guns and munitions to encourage such acts as well.
5. Communicate with supporters directly through mass rallies and unfiltered statements (now called tweets).
6. Tell the public big lies, causing them to doubt the truth and to believe fictions that support the tyrants’ goals.
7. Appoint family members and generals into high positions of authority.
8. Make personal alliances with foreign dictators, but express indifference if not defiance toward democratic leaders.
9. Draw no distinction between personal property and public property, profiteering from public office.
10. Count on average peoples’ confusion, fear, or apathy to allow all this to happen.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
The Core of Hate
A post from a Facebook friend, commenting on the White Supremacist Rally in Charlottesville this weekend.
An apology is a way to convey a message. The Daily Stormer is a leading White Supremacy site. They got the message.
I haven't posted on this because I haven't had enough control over myself to do so, but in the quiet of the morning, here are my thoughts.
We are a single species. One. Proven. If you are a Christian, you also know that we are all in image. All.
...
We are a single species. One. Proven. If you are a Christian, you also know that we are all in image. All.
...
Hate is learned, and it is born of the unholy matrimony of low self esteem and greed. The core of hate is a fear of being lower than others in the pecking order... the idea that others get something you didn't. If it stopped there, that'd be one thing, but it's the glee in hating that that defines it.
At the center of each of us is the deep desire to be seen and appreciated for our uniqueness, and the intricateness of our heart. Flawed, and optimistic, we hope to be loved. At some point, for a few, the kinship they find comes from defining difference. Then defining value based on differences. This is creating a false construct to justify ones position in this hierarchy. And, it's all complete bullshit.
From the dawn of humanity, the effort to create these control constructs has been one of the human race's crowning achievements (the other is the arts and sciences). Our efforts in self-aggrandizement is a shining testament to anger and inferiority complexes. The arts and science show what we are truly capable of achieving.
When our president shows us where he is, the least we can do is believe him. In my America, Nazi terrorists don't get to kill people, beat people or get a pass to rachet up their terror just to feed their self esteem issues. They get vilified, arrested and punished the same as any other terrorist, acting on flawed thinking, would receive.
Hate is the enemy of all that we, the amazing human race (all of us, in every shade, in every gender) could achieve.
- Jet Netwal
At the center of each of us is the deep desire to be seen and appreciated for our uniqueness, and the intricateness of our heart. Flawed, and optimistic, we hope to be loved. At some point, for a few, the kinship they find comes from defining difference. Then defining value based on differences. This is creating a false construct to justify ones position in this hierarchy. And, it's all complete bullshit.
From the dawn of humanity, the effort to create these control constructs has been one of the human race's crowning achievements (the other is the arts and sciences). Our efforts in self-aggrandizement is a shining testament to anger and inferiority complexes. The arts and science show what we are truly capable of achieving.
When our president shows us where he is, the least we can do is believe him. In my America, Nazi terrorists don't get to kill people, beat people or get a pass to rachet up their terror just to feed their self esteem issues. They get vilified, arrested and punished the same as any other terrorist, acting on flawed thinking, would receive.
Hate is the enemy of all that we, the amazing human race (all of us, in every shade, in every gender) could achieve.
- Jet Netwal
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