the beat going on

The beat goes on ... the beat goes on,
Drums keep poundin' a rhythm to the brain,
La - di - da - di - dee ..... la - di - da - di - dah ... (“And the Beat Goes On”, by Sonny and Cher)

"So now we are taking sides regarding the demographics of the Occupy Wall Street protestors. We are being told by one side of the aisle OWS protestors are mobs, creating chaos and full of socialists and fascists. Those on the other side of the aisle who have defined and identified a back bone or courage are encouraging the OWS crowd to continue the cause of dissatisfaction. And oh yeah while the debate on the red, white and blueness of the OWS protests go on we still have corporations not paying their fair share of taxes, the wealthiest 1%percent still wealthy and very few job creations.

1) Gyro-spin was once the rage, uh - huh,
History has turned a page, uh - huh,
The mini skirt's the current thing, uh - huh,
Teey-bopper is our new born king, uh - huh.

So, the lions are turning on the Christians and once again it seems we can never have enough of the good ole’ religion making a comeback in America. Now we have Baptists screaming about the cultism of Mormons. We have the debate from those who say they love Jesus more then anyone else saying who is a Christian and who is not. And the same politicians who themselves have defined Gays, Muslims, Unionists, as non Americans are getting all boo hooed because they feel the discrimination towards them all based on someone’s interpretations of the Bible. You know the Bible that replaces the Constitution for the running of this nation.

2) The grocery store, the super-mart, uh - huh,
Little girls still break their hearts, uh - huh,
And men still keep on marchin' off to war,
Electrically they keep a baseball score.

It seems the deficit super committee created to wipe away our worries regarding all things deficit is having a little bit of a problem handling the people’s business. Seems we stopped the brink of defaulting on our debt just to watch the tsunami come to shore again. Consensus is not a four letter word but it becomes quite an ugly sounding word when it has to be used to ignore party propaganda and used instead to solve a problem. If this super duper deluxe committee of committed partisan players don’t stop playing politics, along with more people marchin’ in soup lines there will be less troops marchin’ all over the world. No Medicare, Medicaid, social security and no mo guns and tanks. The poor have learned how to do with out wonder how the military/corporate world will fare?

3) Grandmas sit in chairs and reminisce,
Boys keep chasing girls to get a kiss,
The cars keep'a goin' faster all the time,
Bum still cries, "Hey buddy, have you got a dime

Grandmas, college students, teachers, unemployed Americans, auto workers, civil servants, first responders, you, me and anyone in the 99% of this nation who rely on better wages, better health care, better working conditions, enough money to pay for rent, and food and health care, you are going to have to wait for this beat to go on and wait until election day in November 2012. Seems talk will fall like the autumn leaves, promises will flow like the wild Mississippi during the rainy season, hope will remain evasive as finding life on other planets, hate will spew like the fires of Mt Vesuvius, truth will be beat around 1000 bushes, disingenuousness will run rampant like cockroaches in New York City walk up, and delay will rule the day until this side or that side wins. Only then will our politicians be brave enough to offer a plan, and maybe even honest enough to offer a plan that works for most Americans and not one that benefits their careers.

The beat goes on ... the beat goes on,
Drums keep poundin' a rhythm to the brain,
La - di - da - di - dee ..... la - di - da - di - dah ... (“And the Beat Goes On” by Sonny and Cher)

Sadly this beat will continue to beat and benefit no one at all. Sadly this beat will resonate louder than any sound needed to fix, change, correct or address the root problems. Sadly this beat will play over and over again ignoring anything else that might rise to the fore to make life better for a majority of people in desperate need of help. Sadly this beat that goes on and on has been the same beat from the past filled with disdain, depression and distrust. Sadly we are becoming too compliant with this beat and dancing to music we hate.

scary words

In the 50's when I was growing up the word Communism was so scary to me that anytime it was mentioned all I could think about was an atomic bomb falling on the city of Pittsburgh and all my family and friends would disintegrate. I had no idea who Communists were but I knew they had to be the most evil of evil and I would never want them as a friend. Communism was a scary word.

In the early sixties we heard that the Negros wanted the same equality and freedoms as white people had in this country. We heard that the colored people were asking for something they did not deserve. We knew that the word Negro or Colored meant trouble and represented a group of people who demanded something they did not earn. We were reminded that any protest the Negros participated in would eventually lead to violence, so even if they were standing idle eventually because of the nature of the Negro mayhem and chaos would soon ensue. Negro was a scary word.

In the mid sixties we witnessed dirty, long haired men and bra less women whose only goal in life was to smoke pot, disrupt the commerce, warfare and welfare of this nation. We were told these fascist like Un-Americans were hippies, hippies were the antithesis of everything this nation stood for. We had eyewitness reports about the hippies meeting with the North Vietnamese plotting with them to kill our Troops. We were told that these hippies would burn flags, spit on the Bible and rape your 15 year old daughter. Hippies were anti anything America. Hippie was a scary word.

In the 70's Anita Bryant told God fearing Bible thumping, Jesus loving Americans that homosexuals were the devils disciples. She had evidence via her Holy Bible, her chats with some God she created in her bigoted mind, revelations from pastors, teachers and parents that the homosexuals had an agenda to turn your child into a pervert. She had spoken with a God who hated a select group of people and that God told her that what was best for America was an America that included no civil or equal rights for anyone homosexual. Homosexual was a scary word.

On September 12 2001 Muslims and the religion of Islam were inhuman cultists who worshiped death, destruction and the devil. From that day until today we are reminded that any Muslim is a bad Muslim. We are told that our Constitution does not include anyone who practices Islam anyone reading the Koran, or anyone who might look Middle Eastern. We were told we are not a nation of tolerance if and when it come to tolerating anyone who is a Muslim. Muslim and Islam are scary words.

2011 and we are now told that when the middle class, the poor want a fairer distribution of wealth it is Class Warfare. We are told when the poor or middle class are asking the 1%of this nations wealthiest to give to the economy as much as the 99% do we are embarking on wealth distribution a leading cause for Communism. We are told that unemployed are selfish when they ask for some kind of income coming their way so they can pay the rent, buy food, go to the doctors. We are told health insurance for all, affordable medical coverage for all is Socialism and the leading index to decline of democracy. We are told the Institution of Marriage will dissolve instantly if people of the same sex who love on another have the same legal right to marry as those of opposite sex who may or may not love one another marry. We are told they are valueless.

Somehow throughout our American history, we are told, by the use of scary words, that the only way to solve a problem is to first find an enemy. We have learned through the negative machinations by politicos, lobbyists, and politicians that if you can’t solve a problem then create a whole new situation diverting the attention of the innocent by making the innocent seem the villain. We have become obsessed in the past decade in finding fault first, placing blame second and hoping while all that turmoil takes place ignore finding consensus. We have decided the more successful we can become is based on how often and how many scary words we can call anyone we don’t like.

And the sad thing throughout the history of this great nation, is that every time a scary word is invented its purpose to deceive, destroy and divert attention from the truth grows more and more powerful.

I wonder is it the words that have all that scary power or the people who spend the time believing them?

Worrisome

So when will you worry?

Almost two dozen states run by a Republican/Te Bag majority of legislators and Governor have either passed or placed into law, restrictions on who and how people can vote. Those who most of these laws will affect are college students, minorities and poor. Most of these states say the laws were initiated due to voter fraud, but when asked for examples, history of, few states had any citations to recite. Most of the demographics that will likely feel the restriction of voting, something most Americans take and took for granted in establishing this democracy were those who voted Democrat in the 2008 election.

So when will you worry when the freedom we all had to vote because that is what made this country great is chipped away? If the Republican/Tea bag Party candidates are so sure they are so right in heir policies and philosophy, if they feel that their candidates represent the best and the promise of America, then why are they so bent on denying everyone the right to vote?

So when will you worry?

A majority of states with a majority of Republican/Tea Bag legislators have spent more time on discriminatory laws denying gay marriage, union organizing, and cuts in education then they have on voting on laws to create jobs. A majority of these states have found it necessary to invoke separate but equal, class warfare, and disregard for our children's future and little time to pass laws about jobs, which was why we presumed they were elected to do.

So when will you worry when second and third class citizenry, denial of health care, education, and social service programs are the priority and the real task of bringing America back to the road of recovery jobs, jobs, jobs are a passing thought or thought about not at all?

So when will you worry?

A majority of Republican/Tea Bag and scared of heir own shadows Democrats insist that the Supreme Court was correct in stating that corporations are people. A majority of Republican/Tea Bag, spineless Democrats don't believe that taxes should be fairly paid by the top 1% of the American population, Corporations or Multinational companies based in the US. When will you worry when everyone else in this country except you or me is too big fail? When will you worry when the priorities of the Republican/Tea Bag, and cowardly Democrats turn away from employment fair, equal and shift to hate bias, bigotry all fanned by religious zealots who somehow think their God is greater than our Constitution?

When will you worry enough to stop and look around and say what they are doing they are doing to me. When will you worry enough to say they are not doing this to me but to some people I know? When will you worry to say wait a minute what they are doing is not the America I know or believe in?

I am worried that too many people are not worried. It is worrisome.

introspective

It is a time of year for me to become even more introspective. It is a time of year when I wonder with more energy about the course of the world, and my piece of it. It is the time of year when I realize the many miracles that have actually happened in my life and try to explain how miraculous they were or how unknowing I was in making magic happen for myself. It is a time of year when I miss my Mom and Dad even more than usual. It is a time of year when I, out of know where, remember my kids first attempts at doing anything they had ever done for the first time. It is the time of year when I know how lonely my life would have been had I never grown up with my sisters. It is a time of year when I know the special relationship that is created when you find a total stranger and call him/her a friend. And most recently it is a time of year when I find it hard to imagine never having called Joe my partner.

Growing up Yom Kippur always had some kind of mysterious aura about it. My family was never very religious and most of what I knew about Yom Kippur came from the Romanian side of my family with my Grandma Braff, her sisters, reciting their version of Jewish law as it was practiced in her village of Baylia. I learned about Yom Kippur from the special recipes and food my mother cooked or baked. She would take out the group of recipes in a certain colored note card and those items would turn our house into a bakery, a restaurant the sweetest smelling, mouth watering place in the entire neighborhood. And we would place large bottles of Maneshevitz Concord grape wine on the tables being told by Grandma Braff this IS the only wine God approves of for Jews to drink.

I remember later on in my life when I felt it necessary and comforting to go to Temple, how the Rabbi's would discuss the importance of this day. How it could mean the closing of the book of life, the ability to reflect, the opportunity to recall and remedy the wrong. How this day was set aside so we could feel the frailties of being human and the power of choice as humans. How this day was set aside because so many other days we rushed around, we scavenged, we searched we slid by. And how this one day we could with our will and strength contemplate and atone.

This Yom Kippur has found me in flux and seeking yet newer horizons. It has also found me questioning choices in my life, and trying to understand both the truths and consequences of arriving here now in my almost 62 year. It has also found me in the past year becoming more involved with the politics of this nation, the philosophies of the politicians and the seeking of common sense looking for right over wrong. It has found me questioning and trying hard to comprehend why hate, fear and loathing are always the answer for why.

Why are we told unemployed people are holding back the economy? Why are baby boomers who have paid their Federal Taxes since they were teen agers considered selfish? Why is wanting health care considered Un Godly? Why is equality considered evil? Why is college education for all called socialism? Why is asking all of us to pay an equal and fair share in taxes demonized and called Class Warfare? Why can't those who love one another marry while those who pretend to love one another can divorce and marry again? Why is it that women who want control of their own bodies chastised and called whores? Why do we need enemies to make ourselves seem stronger?

Tomorrow night I will recall and remember Yom Kippur' from years past. I will cry, sight, laugh, grow melancholy, reminisce, wonder and wish. I will speak to God and ponder and push for answers. And as I am doing that I will also consider the world in which I live, the country in which I live, the place I call home. And I will try to understand what seems simple to me, what seems correct, what seems so right is so difficult to achieve.

It is Erev Yom Kippur, the night before the day of Atonement, and as my Mother and Grandmother did so many years before, I will ready my home, my mind, and my soul and become introspective looking for all kinds of questions and seeking all kind of answers.

guess i was wrong

When I was counselor at camp, I remember having some kids who always called someone else a name or blamed them for any and all misfortune or was the first one to accuse someone else for some mistake most likely made by them. When the question was asked what happened, the response usually consisted of she is a liar, he made me do it, he is bad. Seldom did this group of kids ever answer what happened, but instead moaned about everything else except how to solve the problem. I soon realized that the lack of admitting to your own actions, the inability to solve the problem you created, and the knee jerk response of trying to defame someone else meant that a particular individual never wanted to be accountable for anything deemed disastrous or demeaning.

When I student taught I witnessed some kids bully other students. I watched as the physically stronger kids taunted and tempted a weaker child. I listened as physical violence was suggested if there was no acquiescence. And I had to intervene when the bully felt he/she could intimidate, another peer and attempt to run roughshod all over he/she. When I was a Teen Worker at the JCC I interacted with some very popular kids some wonderful, caring and some who knew their social prominence somehow made them someone special. I watched as they manipulated the less popular teen, the less attractive teen, the 'wanna be' teen into begging their way into acceptance. When the bullies were approached by any authority they immediately denied any responsibility, or insisted it was the actions of others that provoked their reasonable behavior or a complete refusal to address the problem they created.

Now that some Americans are fighting back against the wealthy, the corporations, the banks and the too to big fail companies in this nation they are being called names. Now that some Americans are insisting they will no longer be bullied by lobbyists, religious bigots, politicians beholden to donors, they are now accused of being the cause for the economic breakdown in this nation. Now that those whose voices have been manipulated to stay silent or quiet or speechless are talking they have been scapegoated and shrunk to no more than vermin, hippies, Communists and Socialists.

We are told by some millionaires, the CEO's the gang from Wall Street, the not fair and not balanced boys and girls from FOX, Karl Rove, the band of hooligans running for president from the Republican/Tea Bag party, so called social Christian conservatives, that all that is wrong in America is wrong NOW because the have nots are declaring a Class War. We are told by this demographic that it is the greed of the unemployed, the gluttony of the under insured, the undemocratic machinations of the equal not separate but equal minorities as the cause for the recent recession, the deficit, and the high unemployment. All we hear from those who have had the power and still maintain the power in this nation, who buy their way into power excuses, name calling and threats. What we don't hear is how to solve the problem fairly, equitably and with concern for all. What we don't hear is consensus. What we don't hear is lets define the real problem. What we don't hear is lets forget the blame and name calling lets speak about how we solve the problems.

I remember working with kids, and Teens thinking that once these individuals actually get a taste of the real world they will understand that bullying, blaming and denying their own actions or thoughts are futile and lead to no resolve. I remember thinking that once these kids and Teens became adults they would figure out that inclusion was a better remedy than exclusion. I remember thinking that once these kids and teens had to face the world head on they would discover compassion, concern and compatibility.

Guess I was wrong.

among other things

April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King was assassinated. The next day most of the neighbors in my very white neighborhood began to consider what we might do when the Negro’s who lived in a very black neighborhood about 5 miles away would form a mob and without any conscience rape, murder and pillage the place we call home. We were warned by the local newscasters that the Negro community was pissed and blamed any whites, all whites on the murder of MLK. We were cautioned that marauding bands of Negro hooligans would show no mercy and kill, kill, kill. Suddenly all the Negro’s were bad, disciples of the Devil and a population to fear. So for the next few days some neighbors and I stood atop the small hill in front of our houses and looked for gangs of Negro’s to come to our neighborhood.

It never happened, sadly the only burning of buildings or looting of stores, took place in the two predominately black neighborhoods. We were warned, cautioned, and manipulated into thinking no Negro was a good a Negro. And we were told by some that they deserved to burn down their own homes as they were heathens.

Thank goodness smarter people, less bigoted, compassionate and caring Americans spoke up and spoke loud and countered the anti Negro propaganda. Thank goodness people who had a better understanding of community, coexistence, and consensus took to the airwaves, the schools, the churches, the government and said something terrible happened here and we must understand why it happened and we must understand what we ALL must do to avoid it ever happening again.

Even though calmer heads tried to prevail in this nation, there were still many among the entire population who still needed a scapegoat, a victim, a purpose for their own misfortunes, missteps, and malfeasance. Assisted by religious leaders who prayed to a biased God, parents who would rather misinform their kids then educate them, individuals who confine their hearts to sinister, the Negro suddenly had a new name. Eventually the N word became so derogatory, disgusting, degrading many Americans took broad steps in their life and refused to use the N word ever.

Republican presidential candidate and Texas governor Rick Perry spent Sunday on damage control after a stinging report tying Perry to a racial slur used at a Texas hunting camp his family once leased. The Perry family, dad and son either saw the sign that reads “Niggerhead” at the entrance of their property and either ignored it until 2008 when they painted over the rock or not. Nonetheless, they were active participants on a property that included a name with the N word. And suddenly candidate Rick Perry’s campaign has had a set back and people within his own party, potential donors, and many Americans are asking what kind of judgement could this man have, and how insensitive he must be. And how bigoted is Rick Perry.

Suddenly we are appalled! Suddenly we think this man hates a certain population of Americans. Suddenly our senses are attacked.

I am a Gay man, I am considered by those who are insecure, uneducated idiots that I am less then. I have been chastised, bullied, denied, and treated as separate from equal as humanly possible. My marriage rights, my adoption rights, my job security rights, my housing rights in some to many states are non-existent or voided by laws which do one thing only, discriminate. I only recently can serve in the armed serves and yet there are some who want to take that right away from me.

Governor Rick Perry, the Republican/Tea Bag candidate for president of this great nation has, throughout his campaign announced his distaste, distrust, disgust for people like me, people who happen among so many other things to be Gay. He wants to deny me of anything written in the Constitution because I am among many other thing Gay. He doesn’t want me to receive health care after I return as a Veteran, who among other things happen to be Gay. He wants a national amendment denying me the right to marry in this country, because among other things I happen to be Gay.

And yet, when Governor Rick Perry, candidate of the Republican/Tea Bag party who wants to be president said these things about me, no one was asking him to apologize, to cancel his campaign, to even consider his negativity and name calling.

There is no room in this nation for the N word, and anyone should be taken to task when they use that slur or not run for any political office. But why the fuck can these same people call me any name they wish, deny me any rights they so wish, insult me as often as they wish because I among many other things happen to be Gay.

Where was, is the outrage when Rick Perry and any other candidate for any office can pick and choose who to hate. Justice should be inclusive not just for a few.

mavens and machers

A maven is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from the Hebrew, via Yiddish, and means one who understands, based on an accumulation of knowledge

A macher a person who gets things done, makes things happen, etc. a person who gets things done, makes things happen, etc.

During the over 25 years I was in the communal services profession working within the Jewish Community Center movement I was introduced to more mavens and macher’s than I ever care to count. The most notable trait for me was that if you were truly a maven you were from out of town and if you were a macher you never really experienced the situation in a practical manner but more on a theoretical plane of thought.

The beauty of the Jewish communal field for me was that it relied on a group effort to obtain a consensus, but getting to that point of action having to include so many mavens and machers almost made a person become brain dead. It was so easy for a maven to come in from out of town expound upon an environment for which he/she had little to no responsibility or have a macher preach the gospel to you even though he/she never quite lived the life they profess we should live. I enjoyed the varied points of view but disliked those points of view coming from so many whose own experiences was more of do as I say not as I do.

When the protestors in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya and the other Middle Eastern countries gathered in town squares chanting epitaphs, carrying signs, announcing their unhappiness with their governments and corporations, greed and gluttony every single news corporation in this country had their list of mavens on the air almost 24/7. We were interrupted with updates, bulletins, we were given catchy catch phrases, we were bombarded with the news that democracy might be coming to the Middle East.

Now we have protestors occupying town squares, bridges, neighborhoods in this country, we have Americans looking for democracy for their fair share, for justice for the end of greed and gluttony and just how many news outlets have given the Occupy Wall Street movement more than 5 minutes of air time? Suddenly the same kind of protests which happened the Middle East asking fair and equal and democratic ways has come to our own nation and just as suddenly all the mavens who spoke loud, spoke forcefully about other countries are quiet and less maven-ish. Suddenly like most mavens those in this country can be experts on someone else’s business and completely quiet and hidden when it happens in their own backyard.

I have heard a litany of experts from conservative think tanks, universities, statisticians, and journalists all speak about unemployment, the recession, and the deficit. I have heard them all pontificate from a high about the condition of the worker, the middle class the poor. I have heard men and women in their business attire, with their PhD’s, their newest of books, explain the exploits of the economy of this land and its impact on everyone who seemingly is not like them…paid a six figure income, living in a six figure home and far from the fray. The machers are everywhere, their theory honed like a piece of steel, their articulation precise and piercing, and their lectures like lullabies. But none of them has been laid off, unemployed, without a steady pay check, and none of them have had to prioritize rent, food or medical bills. They speak with great resonance but their voices resonate only to those who are just like them. Machers get paid a pretty penny in an economy that pays most everyone else nothing.

We are told this and that, good and bad, up and down by mavens and machers. We are asked to tighten our belts by people who constantly buy new suits. We are told that we all must suffer before it gets better by people who suffer having to choose which restaurant or hotel they will stay. We are lectured that the American way has changed by people who drive by the homeless, avoid clinics, eat three meals a day and move their money from one account to another. And we are led by individuals whose sole motivation seems to be their political career, political clout, potential book sales and financial bottom lines. And these folks are considered mavens and machers, knowledgeable, experiences important leaders. These are the people who constantly tell us how to live our lives when it is there life we so much want to live.

Mavens and machers, Oy Vay, I find this all so frustrating, so very, very frustrating.