Oct

The World in 107.1 miles

Jerry Brown should ride a motorcycle. Meg Whitman should ride a motorcycle. In fact, every politician from Nancy Pelosi to President Barack Obama should hop on a motorcycle as rider or passenger and take a trip just around one city, one area, one place. Not a sealed bubble of a car or motorcade, but all the sights and sounds and stops of a motorcycle. And so should you.

Ever since my car was totaled I’ve been a motorcyclist, never thought I’d be, never even imagined it. But here I am, a 47 year old openly gay entertainer and media figure out riding about every day on an Aprilia Mana 850, one of the smartest commuter bikes around (partiality noted here). This weekend the Motorcycle Industry Council loaned me a Suzuki Gladius to ride about. I, of course, don’t like to shift, so I stayed on my Mana, but my good friend Niall decided to test it out with me.

Niall and I are an unlikely pair. He’s the epitomé of the straight male in the biker world. A Harley mechanic by trade, bag full of firearms that he loves to take out and practice with, reads all the right wing blogs and there’s not a conspiracy theory around that he won’t entertain or argue about. Born in Hawaii he’s racially tolerant, but has made his fair share of bigoted, racist or even homophobic statements based more on economics than anything else. He believes in border security, kicking Al Qu’eada’s ass and has been in his share of bar fights. And yup, he hangs out with a big queer, me. And we fight and fight about topics. Recently, he’s become engaged and much less rough around the edges. It was our first solo ride after two years of friendship.

Living in Southern California there’s never a shortage of world-class scenery, although most that live here don’t notice any more (more on that later). So we geared up, even in the summer (a lot of bikers forget that asphalt still hurts in the summer weather and leave off jackets or gloves or boots…). Luckily I have AlpineStars (partiality noted here) Summer Collection jacket with all the protection but not all the heat of regular moto jackets. Full face Shoei helmets, good summer gloves and my AlpineStars ankle boots that I wear on the bike or off basically every day. Yup, I got this.

So, off to the gas station, the first learning experience of the day for them (and me). In fact, the trip to the gas station would begin the lesson.

On that first leg of any bike journey is where Meg, or Jerry, or Barack or any other passenger would learn two things from the get go: first of all, protecting ourselves on the roads whether in a car or on a bike is up to us, we must be prepared; and that all that preparation may one day be for naught because our roads are crap (California’s are 48th in the nation and since the nation’s are crap, that’s equivalent with Kabul at this point in some areas), and that because drivers want to text or eat or phone more than drive laws that prohibit such don’t work because you can’t legislate personal responsibility. They would see why 30,000 people a year die in accidents on our own roads (although I’m happy to say motorcycle miles are up and fatalities down) at the hands of poor technology, poor roads, unprepared drivers (we give licenses to anyone basically) and an auto industry that refuses to make it a safer experience. They would see that Americans are in more danger just getting home from work than they are from Al Qu’aeda and launch a full scale attack on our transportation system, at least a three trillion dollar once since that’s what we’ve spend on Al Qu’eada (or more). They would see there’s plenty of jobs just waiting because we basically need to rebuild our roads from scratch.

And they would immediately call Google and say “what can we do to help you with your new Auto Automation software and how can we help roll it out within five years since tens of thousands of Americans are dying needlessly?”

Because trust me (and Niall, and every other motorcyclist out there) most of you simply can’t drive, don’t want to, or refuse to put down the frackin phone, don’t thoroughly look around, bolt out of parking places…well, let’s just say driving is a lost art form and it’s literally killing us.

At the gas station there’s so much to learn. Niall and I pulled up to the same pump. We never look at the price, because even if it’s $.50 more per gallon we’re talking four gallons here, so no big difference. He offered to pay (common among bikers) and I figured I’d get the next one. When he came back, if we had guests, they would have gotten the same earful I did.

“This station charges $2.00 to pay with a card, $2.00!” he exclaimed. “So, if I make $12 an hour, I have to work 1/5th of an hour to pay a bank fee to access my own money, to pay a company to buy their product? Where’s the bank reform on all this kind of crap. Banks charge us to death just to use or get to our money these days! Everybody is trying to pick our pockets!”

He’s right. Bank reform was a joke. The working middle class, if there’s any left, or the working upper class poor (under $75k per year) are “fee’d” to death by the banks. And the tension is mounting. On a recent trip to San Francisco I decided to go see my brethren in the Castro (the gays) and do some banking and iPadding (is that a verb yet? If not, it is now). I walked in to Wells Fargo and a woman was trying to close her father’s account. There was a $25 fee she was never told about, her father had no clue about, in this account that the bank had seen fit to open for her father (I’m a good listener and she wasn’t quiet). She went on about all the fees, the fees, it’s the fees that’s are causing us to leave she exclaimed. I’m quite sure the banker at some point would have reached in his wallet and given her $25 just to make this go away.

Then, while walking down Market a man next to me comment about the empty shopping mall. I made a comment about the economy and he immediately went in to a tirade against his bank who had begun doing what? That’s right, charging him fees of unknown origin, so he went in and gave them a piece of his mind and got them taken care of immediately.

Frustration, it’s everywhere, from the Streets of San Francisco (mad props to the late Karl Malden for the reference, oh and my boyhood crush, Richard Hatch) to the gas station at 7th and Junipero in Long Beach. People are hurting, and often it’s banks and businesses that are hurting them in the name of a fee for something that costs them nothing.

Back on the bikes (the Gladius took under four gallons, the Mana three) and off to San Pedro across the bridges, including the Vincent Thomas Bridge over the second busiest port in the world, the Port of Los Angeles. It’s an important gateway to America and it’s goods, and as such a possible target. I won’t go in to how easy it is to sneak things in containers in or simply walk up to a giant supertanker, but, well, it’s easy.

Next stop Ports O’Call Village. In my teens it was a playground for cruise ship passengers coming or going, the affluent of Palos Verdes, CA and San Pedro, CA and tourists. Waterfront shops and restaurants centered around a bustling port, huge container ships passing by over lunch.

Today it is bustling as well, Full of fish markets where you buy the fish raw and then they cook it for you. About 80% Hispanic, this is where workers, especially Hispanic workers, bring their families on weekends for family lunches. After Niall is asked by a security guard…”Hola, Senor, do you have any cervezas in your backpack? May I look?” Niall and I laugh out loud and say sure! He then sees our helmets and says Oh, itz-ok. No problem.

We laugh out loud about excuse me sir, is that a bomb in your bag, might I look, oh, never mind, you look OK sort of scenario, you know, like airport employees asking if you’ve put anything dangerous in your checked bag (has anyone EVER said yes?).

We get to San Pedro Fish Market at the end of the Village and split a combo plate, It’s shell on shrimp sautéed in the best spices, with Tilapia fillets, peppers, potatoes and onions all thrown on the same plate covered with four tortillas and served with a huge side of salsa. $12.

If we had guests, they’d see, as we did, the four women behind the counter, in the insufferable heat of the day and the grills. Which of them has health insurance? Probably none. Maybe one or two. How many hours must they work like this each week to make ends meet? Is this their only job? And in today’s world, of course, are they legal?

We share a table with a family of five, two kids, boys, mom, dad, and Grandma. Niall and I begin eating shrimp like we’re Baleen whales and fish and peppers all with our fingers, drinking lemonade and laughing. A Mariachi band, a live one, complete with trumpets, begins playing in the crowd behind us. The port is alive today with the darker faces of America and it’s fabulous.

We talk to the family next to us. They’re from Las Vegas. They come out here often to this very place; they drive hundreds of miles to visit a place most in the area have long since forgotten or visit infrequently. Mom and Grandma are, of course, in the service industry. Dad, construction. The boys in school. I speak Spanish, because I live in California, so the conversation was easy.

They offer us food. A huge fish with a face that’s been cooked.

Niall recalls living in Hawaii, spear fishing, then just cooking them right there. And there we are. The big homo in biker gear with tattoos showing, the Harley Mechanic out with the a friend while his fiancée shops for bride’s maids dresses in the garment district of Los Angeles, and the Hispanic family from Las Vegas. Sharing food, conversation, laughter. They buy a giant Corona, and I mean big, and let me take a photo with it. Suddenly, I’m the tourist and I just live two bridges away.

As Niall and I walked away, we both thought the same thing out loud. Legal or not, whatever, who cares. Those were great people, good people, people we are GLAD are in America. If they, or anyone they love, needs help getting in to this country, then dammit, help them, don’t vilify them. They’re not the enemy, the brown people. They’re family. They’re us. They’re part of our community and our culture and we love them as much as anyone else because we’re the same. We just want to sit and eat affordable fish with our families and laugh on a Sunday.

Take that Meg. Learn it. Back on the bike.

Now it’s up the coast, through Palos Verdes Estates and by some of the most beautiful coastline in the world. In the estates we see three Meg 2010 signs, ahh, the wealthy and their idea of what California or the country should be. They want to keep their million dollar beach front property and most of their money, and she’s all for that. They want their Brown people in their maid’s quarters, not at their Ports having lunch. Gotta love them.

We stop at a friend of Niall’s in Manhattan Beach in a mobile home park. While Niall talks I inquire about how much one of the mobile homes that’s for sale is; $200k for a double wide about 10 blocks from the beach,Down from $400 at one point. It becomes obvious why we have a housing crisis. In fact, the countless for sale, for lease or for rent signs, coupled with the going out of business or moving sales along PCH spoke volumes as well. All is not well. And while there’s still beauty and joy, there’s something behind it, too.

Next stop is a huge Harley shop on Lincoln/PCH. Me, at a Harley shop, this should be fun. I’m not fond of them, and agree with Matt and Trey from South Park about many of their riders. I know.

Well, I did. Until the stop. Naill needed gaskets for his Buell. Buell worked for Harley, broke off, made bikes of his own. Past tense. Like many brands of the day, gone.

The guys that came in while I sat iPhoning (bikers wait until they stop to use their phones, novel idea) were, well, every man. They were America. They were workers, older, younger. They were….what was the middle. And their conversations were the same as those at the Port. Family. Friends, the economy. And yes, relaxation. Remember to get out for a minute and enjoy something, anything you love or have, And how time for that is fleeting these days.

Now it was up the coast. There’s something magical about the tunnel that leads to PCH right past Santa Monica, where the 10 freeway begins (at the Pier). I’ve traveled that 10 from beginning to end, literally, and that’s another story. But just passing the beginning of it made me feel not only connected to the rest of the country through that artery, but to the troubles of Katrina and the Gulf Spill directly. That road that starts right there leads to such disaster, such change, such wasted opportunity.

On PCH it is everything every song, poem, movie or work of art can depict. We drove through Malibu, where I had dreamed I’d live when I was younger, home of the rich playground of those that wish to be around them. For sale. For rent. Foreclosed. Yes, even Malibu. And let’s not talk about how it burns almost annually. The traffic congestion locals must endure. No, on some days, it’s just pretty. This was one.

A quick right on Sunset Blvd. and another right in to the Lake Sanctuary on Sunset. Here there is a Shrine with part of Ghandi’s ashes in it. Yes, that Ghandi. Set in a peaceful and serene setting it’s a spiritual place (there is a church there), a place of reflection. I certainly did. I would hope any guest would. Reflect on the smells so far along the way. The ocean mist in Redondo. The BBQs at the beach. The pollution of being in traffic..all of it. You see, smell, hear it all on the bike. Reflect on the conversations at the Port, the laughter, the feeling of true Middle America at the Harley store. Take it in, it’s your state, your country, your world. Experience it, don’t just talk about it, bustle through it or legislate about it.

Then it’s off to the twists and turns of Sunset Blvd. The Mana and Gladius do well, and it becomes clear the only way to get around in an urban environment is a mix of bikes, public transport and other vehicles. Cars just don’t make sense in many settings. We fly past UCLA, a college struggling to turn out America’s next generation of great thinkers. I reflect (you do that a lot on a bike) about the woman I met on a plane back from San Francisco who taught gender studies. She told me of how so much of their time, at their level, at that school, is still spent just teaching kids how to do the basics, like study skills, writing skills, and well, basics. The education system is failing, but the people inside of it are trying so hard, especially the educators.

We pass the first building I did radio in with my late husband Andrew Howard and I cry for a moment. Lucky for me I wear a full face helmet. Donna Summer sings “Sunset People” on my iPod and I laugh, never imagining my life like this. We got to the Abbey in West Hollywood, a long running gay bar in L.A.’s gay Mecca, or Gecca I guess.. Yup, Niall and me and the Abbey on a Sunday. It’s packed. There’s a fabulous gay anthem playing, the obligatory disco diva singing her guts out. Cocktails are flowing. People are chatting. People who survived the bullying everyone hears about. People who “don’t tell” or whom you would never have to ask. People who are legally married, some waiting, some just looking for a connection for the night or a lifetime. It’s people, partying, having fun, fellowship, friends. Niall and I get a juice beverage (pansies, I know but motorcycles are unforgiving in that respect) and we mingle. We see Celebrity X behind the Velvet Rope (below an incredible painting of Liz Taylor that made us laugh out loud!), we see the gay boys and their fag hags, the West Hollywood queers who wear more products in their hair or faces than the women they’re with, each and every one fabulous in their own respect.

I turn to Niall and say, you know, being gay is so fabulous. I love it. I love the music. I love the men. I love that women love us. I love how we get to sing and dance and do whatever we want whenever we want, why, Because we’re Gay! I turn to him, and ask, is being straight just as much a blast?

“Hell f–ing ya!” he exclaims. And we both decide if being gay is a blast, if being straight is a blast, it really must be that just being yourself is a blast, no matter what the package. Here we are, an unlikely pair (and I wish with Jerry, Meg, Barack, Nancy Pelosi, someone in tow) having a great day, experiencing so much of our own area that so many never even take the time any more (including the people). It’s a blast. And yes, I’m a big old homo all the while, and he’s a little fabulous nonhomo and it’s all great.

Being gay is a blast. Bullies are idiots. Politicians who say we shouldn’t marry, or serve, or Gubernatorial Candidates who think gay is not OK (in NY) should all just stow it. Or, better yet, come for a ride with me. Get to know a few. You’ll be amazed. We’re the same.

Then it was sunset at the top of Los Angeles, at the newly reopened and 75 year old Griffith Park Observatory. Downtown Los Angeles to the left, the mid-Wilshire, Santa Monica and beaches to the right, Long Beach off in the distance, mountains behind us and Hollywood sign almost reachable. We drove up to the building (cars were prohibited, motorcycles OK) and parked. And looked. Niall had never been there. All these years in Los Angeles. We’re surrounded by people from all over the world who have come here to see this, this view, of this city. I explain to a young girl as she is literally gob smacked by the Hollywood sign (a little starlet, I could feel it), telling her mom “I don’t even care if you get me in the foreground, just get the sign…” Anyway, I explain to her how it was all about real estate, Hollywoodland, but the “land” fell off and this became an icon. Realtor went broke basically. So an icon of dreams built around a “for sale” sign of sorts. Irony is everywhere.

We look at the sprawl of L.A. and say to each other, since we’re at an observatory, that if we do find life on a new planet, we should tell it to not let us on. We don’t do well with planets. Just look out there.

As we move around the roof, we look at lives so different. Near the observatory, houses are millions of dollars. But just down the hill, look, you can see it there, poverty. From up top the lines between rich and poor, easy and not, the distance between the two is…nothing. Nothing at all. So why such disparity? How can less than 10,000 feet away from such poverty there be such wealth?

The sun sets and neither of us can believe all the things we’ve seen, we’ve thought, we’ve learned or laughed about along the way. As a gay man, I think this is what male bonding must be, Because at that moment, Niall and I were best friends at the top of the world. We agreed that taking the view, the people, the lives we had, no matter how challenging, for granted, was just not a given.

And we realized, before getting on the bikes again that America, including our little portion of it, is still such a great place with such great potential. Anyone riding with us would have seen that, too.

We hit Sunset again, wanting to go beginning to end, and rode in to downtown Los Angeles as the sky turned Orange. The Walt Disney Center, with it’s fabulous architecture, across from the Catholic Taj Mahal, Our Lady of the Angels $300 million … thing…(they even have a gift shop and their own wine, no lie)…amongst the towering corporate logos could not have felt any more Metropolis or world class if it tried. We turned left on 6th Street to go across the very famous and very filmed 6th Street Bridge (S.W.A.T. with Colin Farrell landed a plane on it, so many movies have been filmed on it over the years).

On the way, we drove through skid row, San Pedro streets, Los Angeles streets. Again, just five blocks away there’s lofts, and nightlife and Los Angeles Live. The Biltmore Hotel, where I went at 21 for my first Grammy party, a stone’s throw. Cardboard boxes line the streets, the smell of urine overwhelming in the helmet. An hour ago I was in Bel Aire, driving by the $300k a month home where Michael Jackson died, now, I’m seeing cardboard boxes and urine smell. We drive by the hotel where Andrew(my late partner) and I stayed for a day on air on radio on skid row. I remembered the dead junkie in the room next door, the crack pipe on the heater in our hotel room. We had security. We had people. We weren’t alone on these streets.

I have been. Homeless, Both with my parents and then in my 20′s. I have slept in my car, and eaten food out of a McDonald’s dumspter (every 10 mins they throw away any packaged food not sold, can’t donate it for insurance reasons, dumb, I know. At least they used to).

I can’t help wonder as Niall and I pass these people, how? Why? The numbers have increased since my last drive through here (the Dish Factory is near skid row, cheap dishes). More boxes. More urine. There’s kids, kids out on the street. Kids! I want to stop. The Nikko Hotel, I can see it’s emblem from here. Take them in. A basement, something! Kids! My heart aches. We turn on to the 5 Fwy south.

It’s down the 710, newly paved with a sign saying “your stimulus money at work.” Well, yes, we need it, but what about money for those people over there?

Niall takes the Gladius home once we zoom back to Long Beach. We bid goodbye at a stoplight and I bring Manny back (my Mana). I take off my gear and hug my dogs.

What a day. What a fabulous, wonderful, conflicted, thoughtful day, Great friend, great food, great people. A day of joy, beauty, some of the greatest beauty that tourists still spend good money to come see, in the entire world. And a day of such hardship, Middle class angst, frustration, growing fear. The best the world has to offer, and the worst, all in one day, and all in 107.1 miles.

Everyone should take a 107.1 mile journey around their world on a motorcycle. Or car or bike or bus. Take time to talk, to listen, to really see.

In that 107.1 miles you’ll see the world, And yourself in it. And how it’s all so very connected and the solutions are so very simple.

Meg, Jerry, Barack, Nancy, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, insert name here, I’ve got a seat waiting on the back of my bike or we can get your trained in under a week and riding your own. Either way, get out of your bubbles. Travel that 107.1 miles and see that we’re not talking an economy or race or policy. We’re talking people connected by 107.1 miles of life.

—

Listen to the Karel Show Daily in multiple markets or online at www.thekarelshow.com 3pm to 6pm PST.

Sep

Enough is Enough! The Noise from Florida Is Deafening.

Enough is Enough is Enough
Stop the Media Blitz about the Nut
By Charles Karel Bouley

OK, now this has gone too far.

Enough of all this fake protest over the nut-bag in Florida with less followers than I had guests at my last dinner party; the one that wants to burn the Muslim holy book. All this global outrage, including a comment from the United States President, at this media created hysteria has now got to end before it hurts someone.

Because no matter what anyone will ever tell me, burning a few books does not endanger our troops, outrage any more or cause any worse ripple effect then launching two illegal occupations of Muslim homelands, sustaining those occupations for seven and nine years (and counting) respectively and a refusal to acknowledge the Islamaphobia created by George W. Bush as he terrorized a nation and world for eight years—unstopped by Congress (including the Democratic led Congress since 2006)—with his NeoCon Right Wing Evangelical propaganda. That President told people he was preparing the Middle East for the return of Biblical angels; a statement by a Christian President with occupying forces in Muslim land, a statement backed up with things like “shock and awe.”

And as horrible as the nut-bag’s actions in Florida are, due simply to the disrespect of it all, I still believe blowing up neighborhoods with collateral damage called children, women, innocents whose only crime was living in a region deemed a danger by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and all the other unprosecuted war criminals is far worse. Killing people at a birthday party on camera and enjoying it is far worse. Asking our troops to go door to door in foreign lands with no clear goal is far worse.

We have destroyed the country of Iraq, period, end of story. It does not exist. There is a shell where a country once was with no real working government, inadequate defenses, infrastructure and the vast resources benefitting a small few and not the nation (please don’t say it sounds like here, or was that the plan?). It will be three countries one day, perhaps, or the starting place of a bigger conflict with Iran. Whatever it will be, it’s broken now, and is no way a unified, democratic peaceful ally or nation.

Afghanistan has been exploited by regimes that come in, and then realize, usually after bankrupting the nation, that the commitment is far beyond what any nation can actually commit to and afford, because the nation needs a complete and total revamp, rebuild, and needs a revolution (internal) to solve its problems. But the fact is, it’s broken, too, and our presence isn’t helping because our mission is still unclear. So, another broken country, broken before we found it, and it will be worse after we leave it.

These actions, and our foreign policy endangers our troops. Deeply ingrained hatred and misconceptions endangers our troops (on both sides). Allowing your President to deploy troops where there should be none, and attack strangers who are not our enemy endangers our troops and our security. Running a black ops torture chamber known an Guantanamo endangers our troops. Waterboarding with impunity endangers our troops. Not impeaching that President endangered our troops. Not forcing this one to completely withdraw (out means out) endangers our troops. And yes, Bashing Muslims in this country, be it stabbing a cabbie or protesting a Mosque, say it with me, endangers our troops (oh ya, and burning their Holy book).

But stop all the denouncing. Every major Christian leader should fly to Florida, form a human chain between this nut and the burn pile, and tell him No! We Christians know this is wrong and hateful and we stop you in the name of our Lord! Let them police their own crazies. But stop condemning and get up and do something. Go there, stop him. Put yourself in between. Show the Muslim world good Christians will stand up for them even to one of their own. But No. They’ll condemn and moan and groan but say “we have to let him, it’s his right in America…” Yup, it’s his right, but nope, you don’t have to let him. It’s your right to go there, and stop him. Show up, join arms, block the burn pile.

Or, in a show of solidarity, burn the Bible on Saturday as well to show that any God can withstand a good bon fire. Make smores, because only God can make a Smore, from the heat and be joyous that your God is more powerful than a small bonfire and that His Word has withstood much worse than a crazy guy in Florida. Burn your bibles to show the Muslims that it’s all just books being burned, not Gods or faiths (or religious leaders as the Catholics once did) but just pulp returning to ash. Show them your book and theirs are equal and that you both mourn the stupidity that day.

Or shut the hell up; Because the NOISE about it all is what is dangerous, not the act itself. I talk to thousands a day, my columns read by more than 50 people. If I burned a Bible on Saturday would it start world wide condemnation and protest? Would Obama comment about Karel. I doubt it. It would be seen as a radio stunt, like Beck’s rally, an entertainer doing a PR move.

So why isn’t this? This guy wanted Press, that’s all, and he’s clearly crazy. With Snooki and Lindsay and others we have enough Crazy in the news. We don’t need Christian Crazy, any more than we have it already.

There are insane people like this guy in Florida all over America with agendas as bigoted, as phobic, as ridiculous as him. Media does not cover them because it leads to no productive end, and bigotry and racism isn’t new or newsworthy.

He’s a miscreant. Don’t focus on him.

Our actions as a nation have been far more offensive to the Muslim world than this. Bush’s illegal occupation of Iraq and our failed mission in Afghanistan (wasn’t it to get Osama Bin Laden, then, we failed) have only harmed us more. Guys like the one in Florida and things like the Mosque in NYC will end as soon as we get our troops out of harms way all together when it is not necessary.

The Muslim world, and most Americans agree, neither Iraq or Afghanistan are necessary. Start with that, and forget the preacher. Wars endangers troops more than bonfires.

Jul

This is Just Plain Dehumanizing

This questionairre is the most dehumanizing thing…wait, just another in a long step of dehumanizing things. This is what our military is being asked by the Big Bad Gays.

It’s all here:

Wait to you get to the GLBT questions. Love the ones about showering. Replace Gay with Black and would this fly today?

Jun

Morning Edit Video

A quick read thru of the HuffPost article on video.

Morning Edit-We’re All Human from Karelchannel on Vimeo.

Jun

Time For A Little Humanity

If We Stand Back And Take A Breath, We’ll Choke Up
By Charles Karel Bouley II

We’re so many things, each of us. We’re male, female, gay, straight, we’re progressive or conservative, we’re black, white, Latino, we’re husband, wife, son, daughter, we’re American, we’re immigrant, we’re blue or red or purple, we’re so many adjectives these days, so many names. We’re iPhone or Blackberry, Mac or PC, Facebook or Twitter (no longer Myspace), cell phone or landline, snail, or email, we’re web traffic. We’re the poor or the rich, we’re the middle class, we’re the unemployed or the uninsured, on and on and on until every bit of every subsection of everything that may make us different and classifiable is exhausted; Especially in, or for, the 24 hour news cycle, for politics, for conversation.

And that 24 hour news cycle, the news alerts beamed to your device of choice from the now archaic yet irreplaceable radio to the latest WiFi device in your pocket, keeps us so busy and so distracted that for many, the one thing we’re not any longer is feeling, emotional, rational, thinking humans. Somehow, humanity has been the victim of getting in closer touch, of staying connected 24/7 or knowing it all. It got beaten out of us it would appear. And how could it not?

Yesterday, I closed my syndicated radio show by stating, “Well, the disaster in the Gulf caused by the felons BP is worse today than yesterday. We are no clearer on our mission or its success in Afghanistan but lost a general in great political theatre that does nothing to keep my friend, Eric, safe in-country right now (he’s in Afghanistan in the Army). We then took a General that MoveOn.org once called General Betray Us, one that Obama then skipped the vote to condemn MoveOn.org for the attack as Republicans wanted, have Orin Hatch of Utah wanting to drug test the unemployed to allow them to get benefits which only further victimizes the poor (there’s no provision for medical marijuana, either), lost two soldiers in Afghanistan and have no end in sight really for the worst ecological disaster of all time while a federal judge with lots of oil industry and Halliburton holdings says drill baby, drill. Oh and new home sales plummeted to their lowest ever, in history as unemployment in states like California soared as benefits run out because Congress is three weeks late approving another extension…but don’t worry, it’s only Wednesday….”

Any one of the incidents or situations should ground us as a nation. Stop us from whatever we are doing, make us take a pause, solve the problem, even if it takes time and sacrifice. But they don’t, they blend, they merge, they become news stories and sound bytes and water cooler conversations (does anyone have those any more since, well, no one is working in offices that can afford to rent coolers any more…). They have to, even 9/11 has to, or else we’d be even more medicated than we are right now.

If we step back, take a moment, and be, yes, human, if we, as humans connect with the events and each other as the most basic common denominator, humans, our country, our world would change instantly. It would have to, the pain of its existence right now would be too much for any feeling person to bare. It’s too much for me. I often cry on air covering the news these days. Sappy, huh? I know. But when I’m talking about the baby dolphin in the surf, dying, soaked in oil, it’s first breaths from coming forth from mom, reaching for the surface, for life, for air, and it sucks in crude…for what. Really, for what? Because corporate America, not human America and Americans, but the soulless corporate America refuses to give us the alternatives at affordable prices to get off of gasoline and petroleum period; government refuses to truly back emergency plans to get us off fossil fuel, because no one has asked us to sacrifice and we won’t without being asked, obviously.

I won’t preach about how we each could do wonders already to get away from fossil fuels. Walking within one mile of your house, biking within two, no two car families, one car, one motorcycle or scooter, a home can go solar for under $2k in most cities and states now…on and on..it’s all there. No, this is not the place for that. This is the place where I wonder if the soulless corporate America has become America and Americans; I truly do.

Because in a feeling world, cars would be parked. Period, end of story. Seeing what uncontrolled oil can do, all off shore wells, ALL OFF SHORE WELLS in the United States would be shut down, capped, left forever untouched. It’s just too dangerous should they break. There are no acceptable levels of crude in the food chain. None. Animals shouldn’t swim in it, eat it, or “dispersants.” Period. Seeing what happens to the people and the ecosystem would make any other society stop, change immediately I would hope. Truly, immediate moratoriums on all fossil fuel vehicles. Trucks parked from X to X, cars not used except for work or emergencies from X to X. Like when we lined up for gas. Your car ends in an even number plate, you use it on even numbered days. Find another way 15 days out of the month. Yup, inconvenient as hell, but it would force the industry to change immediately. We’d have electric cars, hybrids, fuel cells, all kinds of technologies. I got rid of my car for motorcycles and scooters. Not perfect, but the lowest gets 50mpg. In December my Piaggio MP3 300 hybrid will get over 100mgp. I know it’s still using the drug, but it’s something. It hurts too much, I’ve got to try.

Afghanistan hurts too much. I’ve seen too many photos from my Army friends. The soldiers are not well cared for, period, end of story. It’s embarrassing how they are forced to live knowing we spend over a million dollars a year each on them. The people there are so..sad..so caught in the middle of so much and we can’t solve their problems for them, it’s so very, very sad. We often create more.

America, Americans, whatever you are, we don’t need to think any more. At all. Really, we don’t. The great thinkers are thinking and then marketing their thoughts to us constantly. We need to remember it has always been our job to feel. We, the People are the Soul of America, its heart. Our founders knew that many of us wouldn’t be the most informed, but we’d have the spirit, the heart, the soul to do what is right, to vote for what is right based on truths that are “self evident.”

Think about the Constitution. It doesn’t talk about divisions, about labels, about budgets and committee meetings and moratoriums. It talks about the intangibles,

As I grab my iPad and launch the app “USA Manual” which has so many great documents in it like the Constitution, reading them again, reading it, makes me believe the founders were more emotion than anything else. Courage, fear, hope, lots of hope, they were feeling Americans who reacted out of those emotions. In their very documents defining the country they speak of “justice” and “tranquility,” “the general welfare” and “the blessings of liberty.” Those are all things that can’t be touched or legislated, they are things to be felt, to be achieved. One knows when justice is served not by a sentence, but by their gut feeling. One certainly knows when one is tranquil or blessed. No, our founders felt, they felt anger and rage against a King and a tyrant, they felt love and compassion for strangers, yes, they were greedy, some, another emotion, and yes, unjust, to Blacks and American Indians, and every kind of horrifying part of humanity existed them, the worst we can be. And yes, there was business and corporations of sorts. Yet, to them, all of that was a means to an end, and that end was a country that FELT, that had a heart and a soul to stand up for what was right and defend against wrong. Even right and wrong are emotions and totally subjective points of view at times.

I understand why many of you can’t or won’t feel it as deeply, or tire of it, but we must remember today more than ever that we are human. The immigration debate isn’t about illegals, it’s about people. Humans. The Gulf Disaster isn’t about who can or should drill where, it’s about us causing an event so catastrophic we have yet to see the outcome, hell, it’s not even anywhere close to being over. It’s a game changer, a life changer, a country changer or should be. It should be the death knell of oil and big energy companies. Period. Don’t you feel it? Can’t you feel it? Won’t you?

The same with war. Aren’t you weary of it for any reasons any more? Weary, tired, human thing again. A billion a day on foreign oil, billions more to fight wars to protect it, Iraq and Afghanistan tie directly in to the Gulf. It’s all related, everything in the news. And it’s all about people, not things, not adjectives, people.

It’s time to take a step back. To breathe in; to breathe deeply. Yes, you’ll choke on the toxic fumes of the Gulf, but once you recover, you’ll be inspired. Another emotion we need to feel. Inspiration. It’s been a while since America has felt it as a whole. If we begin to feel through all these events, and the pain they will cause (and they will, they still do because we don’t feel our way through then heal, we move on without healing); but if we move through that pain we’ll make something so much better than what we have now.

If we don’t start to feel more, more pain, more outrage, more of a need to sacrifice to make things better, then we sold our lives and souls to corporate America and like all of our gadgets our battery life as a nation is running out. The only way to recharge is to go back to basics; humanity.

Apr

Joe Biden Wants You To Be An Editorialist

Karel –

Two weeks after it was signed into law, health insurance reform is still the talk of the town.

It’s for a good reason: This was a historic accomplishment. But it wasn’t easy. I remember what it’s like to be a senator and take a tough stand on an issue — confident that it’s the best thing for your constituents, but equally sure that special interests will pour buckets of money into attacking you for it.

Your senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, did just that when they supported health reform. Now, we need to provide a line of defense money can’t buy: the voices of real constituents speaking out and showing their support.

That’s where you come in. Do you have three minutes to jot down a quick letter to your local newspaper? If you need ideas on what to say, you can watch a quick video Organizing for America put together about how reform will benefit California.

Click here to get started.

Believe me, senators and their staff read the letters page — because they know just how influential it can be. Your letter could make a tremendous difference.

In my conversations with my old colleagues, I made it clear that this White House was prepared to back them up — that no barrage of partisan attack ads would go unanswered. But to follow through, I’m going to need some help from folks like you.

This legislation will put Americans in control of their own health care, rein in insurance-company abuses, and give millions of Americans access to affordable health care for the first time.

Special interests know that in the coming months, all their lies about reform will be proven false. But that won’t stop them from inventing new ones and spreading attack ads.

It’s just the first step, but one letter from a constituent is worth a hundred paid advertisements. So please make sure your friends and neighbors understand the benefits this law will bring to ordinary Americans — take three minutes and write a paragraph or two now:

http://my.barackobama.com/SenateThank

Thanks,

Vice President Joe Biden

P.S. — Not only is Sen. Barbara Boxer facing special interest attacks, but an election looms this fall, and Republicans have pledged to repeal the reform we fought so hard for. We need Sen. Barbara Boxer in Washington — will you pledge to volunteer for Sen. Barbara Boxer’s re-election fight?

http://my.barackobama.com/YouFightWeFight

Mar

Stop the Gayhunt on Massa

Stop the GayHunt And Refocus on the War
By Charles Karel Bouley

Rep . Patrick Kennedy got all fired up on the floor of the Congress Thursday, March 11, 2010, veins bulging, spittle flying….why? He was angry that while the Congress debates Afghanistan and the $3 Billion dollar a year escalation there are two members of the press corps there; he contends because the rest are too busy talking 24/7 about former Rep. Eric Massa’s personal woes.

He’s right. I did the same rant on my radio show yesterday (you may here that here http://www.radiokrl.com). But for different reasons.

You see, while the media was chasing down poor, helpless ex-Navy men that had the scarring and emotionally damning experiences not of war but of being groped by a guy, formerly unreported events that should have probably remained such, I was reading an email from an extended family member that had me quite upset. Upset because it wasn’t the “what” of the email but the “where.” He had just left Kabul and was in some outpost in Afghanistan. My extended family member, my fabulously gifted and remarkably handsome engineer is now one of the number I spoke so much about, the 30,000, one of the troops that now costs us one million per year to support; he’s back, for the third time.

My heart stopped when I got the email. My thoughts went to his wife, immediately. I wanted to hug her, bring her down to my house, go for facials. Because if she’s anything like me, she now goes to bed and wakes up hoping he’s OK and saying to ourselves that if one hair on his head is harmed….

Meanwhile, as I sat worried, Massa deconstructed on TV, including going on Glen Beck, a move so ridiculous that the man is obviously having a breakdown and no one stopped him. Truly, when one is in a room with Glen Beck and Beck appears to be the sane one, something is wrong.

His family must be in such an uproar, and his life is unraveling. The one thing this man has probably never dealt with, the fact that he obviously wants to explore men sexually on some level, has been ground in to grist for the media mill and he is literally falling apart under the glare of the spotlight. He is unstable, in huge denial, struggling internally to hold on the “self” he thought he had and the “self” that everyone now sees. He cant’ reconcile the two and he’s come unglued in some areas. I’m no psychologist, I’ve just been gay my entire life and have seen this over and over again.

And the media, including liberals on liberal radio started screaming for him to come out, bringing more salacious details about past allegations to the foreground. Everyone began the horrible news cycle of replaying his rantings, the obviously unstable talk from a man trying not to drown. I feel nothing but pity for him. He has lived a closeted life and now the door is wide open. Not that he’s gay, he may not identify as such. There are 307 million Americans and 307 million different sexualities. But why the media is on a gay witch hunt is beyond reason at this point. Why they insist on not stopping until he is outed or outs himself even after he has resigned is just malicious. HE DOESN’T KNOW WHO HE IS YET, give him a minute to find out. And then, really, it’s none of our business unless he wants it to be.

Me, the guy over here that doesn’t care, I lost a Universal Health Care supporting Democrat, and they’re hard to come by. As for the allegations about staffers, I find it hard to believe that men can truly be sexually harassed. I am a man, and it would be hard to harass me. Because I can say No! and I have the ability to back that No! up. So did each and every other sailor on that ship or any other ship. Sexual advances are only harassment if the person doesn’t want them, otherwise, it’s dating. Some people don’t wait for an answer, they’re boorish and jump in. Smack their hands, send them away with a warning. They do it again, report them or flatten them. You’re a guy, man up. And for the record, when someone muffs your hair and says they should be “frackin’” you, it’s a compliment not harassment. Since when is being told you are sexually attractive to someone an insult? Have we become that society? A society where someone making their sexual interest known, even in a boorish way, is harassment? Man up.

None of that applies to women. Between men and women it’s always a power thing. Always. Men have been harassing women since the caves. In fact, many women I’ve heard comment about the Massa case say, ya, our world, welcome to it, man up and move on. When a man harasses a woman it’s always about power and then sex, whether the man knows it or not. When a man harasses a man, it’s just sex. Unless it’s rape, and no one has alleged that. And at any point any of those staffers could have ended any harassment.

Oh, but they might have lost their job. Well, if your boss makes such a demand you’re screwed either way so pick your poison. Either it’s literal, or you end up in a big HR thing, people getting fired, reprimanded, investigated and that’s a mess, too. Of course report them and screw them by ruining their career; But for a mess of the hair? Truly. If someone refuses to stop and continues the behavior, take them down professionally so they learn. And if like Mark Foley the object of their attentions are under age or wards of the government, go after them. But nothing in this case really smacks of anything but some closeted guy trying to cop a feel every now and again. The grabby icky family member that is always doing inappropriate things…

And after he resigned why does anyone care? There were no criminal charges. No sexual claims in the Navy, and the ones that have come to light in office have been dropped or ended with the resignation. Nope, this is just a gay witch hunt. Make him come out. He’s a groper. He likes men. He’s a dirty abusing fag hypocrite in a closet and should be exposed, at least the media thinks so. Even Larry King got the “are you gay” question out…instead of, “are you an abuser? Do you abuse your office to get sexual favors? “ Nope, are you gay. And the diversion answer he gave was classic of someone not wanting to answer truthfully. You don’t have to watch “Lie to Me” to figure that out.

Meanwhile, while all this raged, it appeared Rep. Patrick Kennedy and myself were paying attention to Afghanistan. Maybe he feels he has a horse in the race, I certainly do.

So I’m drawn back to my letter to President Obama. Yes, I wrote one the moment I got the email from Afghanistan. The talk topic became very real, and suddenly Massa…who cares? Poor guy, he’ll probably end up in gayhab, repaired through the Lord. Whatever. Unemployment went up in 30 states on the same day (down from 43, but still), 100 Americans on average died from lack of access to health care, 1600 more on average went bankrupt because of medical bills and my friend had to go to sleep in deplorable conditions only to get up and go on a patrol that may be his last. All in the one day Eric Massa chose to deconstruct. So like Kennedy, I really think there’s other things to focus on unless you’re TMZ. Maybe we need a political version of TMZ for all this kind of stuff so MSNBC and CNN, Fox Noise, etc, can leave it alone.

And if one does focus on Massa, focus on the abusive aspect, not the gay aspect. When something is repressed like that, the person acts out. These were incidents where he was acting out, the whatever part of him that wants to be with men coming to the surface, reason be damned. He joined the Navy for God’s sake. He put himself on a ship with men at sea for long periods of time. If your branch of service has a Village People song about it, something’s up.

And you know what, thank society for that. If men were allowed, like women, to explore sexuality with other men without repercussion it would all be different. Two women get together in college, on an all females ship, or any time, and not only does the heterosexual society not care, but most straight guys would want to be there. Two guys try it out on any level even once, QUEERS! HOMOS! The heterosexual porn industry bears that out; two women often get together in those films, never, ever two men. That would then be Bi. Such a ridiculous set of rigid rules and double standards it’s no wonder we have Massa, and let’s not forget State Senator and homophobe CA Rep. Ashburn coming out in messy, messy ways. It’s scenes just like the Massa one that will keep other men from actually saying, I’m not gay, but I have always wanted to…or, I’m secure enough to explore this side of my sexuality or whatever Massa could not tell himself, kept his attractions so pent up even he couldn’t recognize them when they surfaced and ended up being that grabby guy no one really likes.

Meanwhile, today, this very day, 100 Americans on average will die from lack of access to health care, 1600 more on average will file bankruptcy because of medical bills and my friend, and hundreds of thousands of other people’s friends and families will be in Afghanistan or Iraq, unemployment in my state, CA, will still be at 12.5 %, and on a personal note, I’ll still be single. Yes, it jabs at me that closeted Republicans or Democrats with families are getting more male attention than myself. What a world.

So leave Massa alone.; He’s a hot gay, bi or questioning mess who is having a stress related breakdown. Do not repeat what he says in the news if you care at all for his sanity or his process. He hasn’t hurt you, America, at all. He doesn’t deserve to have such a gayhunt after him. Foley? Yup. Craig? Yup. Ashburn? Yup. Massa? Please.

And let’s refocus as Kennedy has asked on Afghanistan for just a minute or two. I drafted this to the President, maybe it’s time more of us do.

Dear President Obama:

I usually address my messages to you on air, but tonight, I’m writing you for a reason. You see, today, I became invested in the wars again, because a family member of mine is now in Afghanistan. A kinder, more intelligent person you’ll never meet, and a fierce and brave warrior.

So I need you, Mr. President, to really make the right decisions in that theatre. I’m not telling you what that should be. I don’t see the PDB’s you do, I don’t have the full picture. But remember this: someone I love as much as any other human on this planet is now one of the 30,000 sent over, and there’s 29,999 others this year alone with family just like me.

So Mr. President, as Commander in Chief I want you to know I am holding you personally responsible for his safety. He trusts you, and the military, and has served it well. Do not betray his, or any trust, by keeping them in harm’s way any longer than need be. Make sure his mission, all missions are clear, that objectives are not muddy, that the goals are obtainable. Listen to the generals and commanders, but then use the wisdom that we elected to make sure our men and women, particularly one of them, comes home unscathed.

I support you Mr. President, but now I have a horse in this race as well. A thoroughbred really. I know to him he’s no more valuable than any other member of his squad, but to me, he’s an American hero.

Please, keep him safe, support him and his fellow army soldiers, and know I am watching every single thing and I’m a voter. Please make the right decisions for the overall objective, and for the troops on the grounds.

You’ll never meet each and every soldier, Mr. President. But know this: if they are half the person my family member is, then you command an Army of Americans that cannot be replaced, is not dispensable and is deserving of your full attention and support both in the wartime theatre and when they return home.

Be well
Charles Karel Bouley

I sent my letter to President Obama. Why not take the five minutes you might have spent in the Massa saga today, and write one yourself about Afghanistan. Let him know we are all still very focused on it as well.

Do so here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Feb

Dear President Obama

Dear Mr. President:

Greetings. I would like to speak to you today about your permeating theme of bipartisanship, particularly in regards to healthcare, but also on a broader scale and also the populist anger that many keep referring to in the country today; you see, they both are related.

Like you, I talk to many people for a living and then render an opinion. I’m a communicator, an entertainer that speaks to and hears from hundreds of thousands of Americans and they’re angry and frustrated, and the reason is so painfully clear; yet it is something no Democrat, yourself included, seems to be able to vocalize. They don’t want bipartisanship, they want leadership; right suffix, wrong word.

You see, Republicans, neocons, the Right has had their say, for eight years, and it destroyed us. Over those eight years they diid not practice bipartisanship, they practiced a mock dictatorship or coup. Democrats sat by and basically watched as the country was decimated; in 2006 when the country gave the Congress a Democratic majority, Nancy Pelosi, your speaker of the House, refused to impeach George W. Bush (we both know starting the proceedings doesn’t mean removal, but it’s the process that’s important) and Democrats continued to support and fund the wars which the people that sent them there opposed. We didn’t want bipartisanship then, either, we wanted resolutions.

The fact is, Republicans lost because We, the People, wanted them to. We were tired of their governance, their style, their lack of concern for the people and their sole focus on corporations and monied interests. We sent you, and others to Washington D.C. for change, we gave you a majority, and now we want that change. What we don’t want is rehashed ideas that only serve the Republican masters of money and power.

Take heath care in the United States. Poll after poll, and call after call to my show, make it very clear that people don’t want health insurance reform, they want access to health care. During your big push, you told us, We, the People, that 40,000 of us each year would die without access to health care. Many of us took the figure of 100 of us a day dying literally; in fact, when the horrible earthquake in Haiti hit, and the world responded, many of my listeners thought perhaps if the 40,000 dead in America from lack of health care ended up rotting and bloating on the White House lawn as people were in the streets of Haiti that maybe the world would care for our tragedy; maybe our Congress would respond.

No, it’s clear, people want a strong public option, MediCare for all. Americans are not the idiots many, including your administration, seem to think them to be. We, the People, Mr. President, own an insurance company already, MediCare. Why on Earth would our government subsidize private insurance companies with payments, funds, fees, opening up yet another revenue stream for these faceless entities that do nothing to improve health but push paper when we own our own company? No sane people would, and we regained our sanity, we believed, by electing you.

We want the other side, the Republicans, to shut up, to sit down, to get out of the way. We want you to lead by shutting down the fillibuster and getting things done. Incite the Senate to get rid of the fillibuster now. We didn’t elect you to a system of 60 votes and nor will we accept that number as a reason to not get anything done. The Republicans got plenty done with their majority, you are quick to list their accomplishments, two unfunded wars, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthiest, illegal wire tapping and surveillance…torture; oh yes, their war-crime laden agenda got pushed through often and without much to-do; now it’s time to get a peace time agenda through, one for the people.

So Mr. President, stop pissing the people off. While they have tea parties and speak of racism, of division, using code words or thinly veiled, very thinly veiled, racist and xenophobic remarks, while they derail your agenda through ridiculous propaganda campaigns on their corporate funded media voice Fox, Americans are dying, slipping in to poverty and waiting for the MAJORITY of you in D.C. to stop trying to play nice with the other side and work.

You see, Mr. President, I’ve watched your appearances of late and in case Mr. Emmanuel or others won’t tell you, the Republicans don’t like you, at all. None of them want to work with you, and if they do, their base will punish them, so they believe. They have open disdain for you, again, thinly veiled racism wrapped in party unity and anyone that supports you. They will, and have, shut down America to get back in to power and that is as dangerous as any military coup and you and your party have let them. Stop asking them to play in your sand box, they don’t want to, and stop asking them to care for their people. Didn’t the last eight years show you they don’t care for the people at all? Because the people certainly got the message, it’s why your in the White House.

You will lose in 2010 for the party and lose the White House in 2012 if you keep this up, not because people don’t like you but because currently you are allowing the opposition party to shut down your government.

So, if you’d like to regain favor and actually help America, I, and my listeners and readers, have a few suggestions:

A; Scrap the Health Care Bill. Write a much simpler, easier to understand one of only 16 words: Every American Citizen shall be covered under Medicare from birth until death for all medical necessities. Pure and simple. All Medical necessities from birth until death because a healthy American is a healthy America. And don’t bother us with the cost. We are aware that if we can spend over one trillion dollars on two unjust occupations without the blink of an eye, we can fund health care. So stop the money lie right now. We can afford it. We just can’t afford it and some of the other dirty little programs out there, like Iraq. So fix it.

B: End the fillibuster by getting the Senate Majority to act, your majority, our majority. Get the health care bill approved by a 51 majority, not 60. In other words, get ‘er done. The nation understands that.

C: Get party members to threaten impeachment of each of the five Supreme Court justices that decimated our election system and our nation by granting corporations personhood; impeach those that breached ethics in 2000 by accepting and ruling upon Gore V. Bush; by breaching the First Amendment by denying freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the Prop 8 trial in California and for a list of other usurpations. In 1969 the mere threat of impeachment caused a justice to resign. It is clear to all they no longer interpret whether laws meet Constitutional muster, but rule from a very ideologically conservative place incongruous with the document they are sworn to defend and uphold. Our founders gave us a process, how about you and and your party stop being too afraid to use it?

D: Give the last decade some closure. Start public, open torture and war crimes trials. If you don’t have the stomach, buy Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Rove one way tickets to the Hague. I’m not being rhetorical here. Many now see you and the Democrats condoning war crimes by not at least looking in to the validity of the charges in the form of a trial or hearings. We are big boys and girls. We can, in fact, move forward, while prosecuting those from our past that did harm to us and our country.

E: Govern for the love of any God named or unnamed. Don’t ask Congress to repeal don’t ask, don’t tell. Sign an Executive Order. The same for DOMA. Just get rid of bad policy quickly and easily.

F: And most importantly, stop asking Republicans, the party of Opposition, what they think, feel or would do in a situation or on policy. We, the People, have made it clear by a majority that we do not care about, nor want their ideas, good, bad or otherwise. Their time has come, and gone. They are the past. Treat them as such, with deference and politeness and that’s about it. They will, in fact, do that to you and your party once they regain power. And if you and your party keeps up your inability to govern, then they will, in fact, regain power out of frustration of the populous and nothing else.

You are the President of the United States of America. Arguable, still the most powerful man in the free world. Stop acting like a swim coach that wants to be popular and start acting like the President. Lead your party, they will follow, and so will the people. And if they don’t you lose nothing because at least you tried and if you don’t start forgetting the bipartisanship mantra and start inflicting our will on government, then you’ll lose the election anyway. So either way, you stand to gain much and lose nothing in the long run by at least trying.

Again, Mr. President, you are my President and I want you to win, to succeed, to govern. You, and your party. Not the Republicans and their ilk. That’s not what we voted for, so please, politely, tell them to sit down and shut up, take power away from them, don’t give it to them; remove the ability for any of their ideas to permeate policy, we don’t want it. Even if people are too afraid of being rude to say it, we simply have heard enough from the other side.

Let me put it for you in a way one of my callers put it on my radio show to me: George W. Bush, neocons and republicans abused the country and it’s people like a battering spouse. They were abusers, took advantage of everything they could, beat us down many times with fear and other methods to gain control. They never let us recover from 9/11, really recover and work through it as a nation and just beat us when we were down until we submitted. They were an abusing spouse. And now that we’ve gotten the divorce, broken free, moved them out of our House, you’re asking us to get back in bed with them. Well, we don’t want to go back, we want to go forward. We don’t want to hear the ideas of those that did us harm, harm you and your party often point out to us when you want to win something. We don’t want to have to date our abusers again.

So please, Mr. President, do the unpopular thing in Washington D.C. but the one thing that would gain you support across the board: stop waiting for the other side to approve or contribute and simply run with the ideas you told us about, that you said you would do once you got to D.C. with your party. Use the majority we gave you to give us things Republicans never would: an America where Americans come first, not corporations or monied interests. For once, Mr. President, for once in modern history be a President that isn’t afraid to use the system the founders set up to the full extent, be it impeachment of Justices or universal health care by a 51 majority vote. If a war, wait, ,two occupations, can be pushed through easily, so can this.

In other words, we didn’t send two parties to Washington D.C. by majority, we sent one. So stop making us deal with the others and their ridiculous ideas. Them, we’ve heard. We wanted new ones, yours. If you and your party can’t lead, stop blaming the other party for the inability. And fear not, keep this up, and in a few months, and then another couple of years, we’ll have nothing but their ideas all over again as they retake control as Americans have proven time and time again that in times of great despair they often will vote against their own self interests out of frustration. After all, they reelected George W Bush.

Thank you, Mr. President. My best to your lovely family and doggie.

Dec

It’s Only Terrorism If We Are Terrorized

It’s Only Terror if it Terrorizes
by Charles Karel Bouley

By Charles Karel Bouley
for the HuffingtonPost

On Christmas Day, 2009, a man boarded a plane with the intent of bringing it down or causing serious damage. His plot didn’t go to plan, foiled by the brave men and women who sent the message to him, and to every other person out there that would do the same: No! We, the passengers are not going to sit idly by while you hurt us or others. We are not cowards, and we are not afraid of you. They took him down and the plane landed safely.

They weren’t terrorized; they were spurred in to action and when called upon, exhibited courage and bravery. It’s happened before, most notably on 9/11 and may, in fact, happen again. The headlines that day should have read “Passengers Again Prove Stronger Than Al Quaeda” or “Passengers Rebuff Terrorists, Injuring Attacker” or other such empowering headlines. Once again America had the chance to be in the driver’s seat, in a position of power. Instead, American media, and officials, chose the victim route and the cowering and scampering to get under tables began almost immediately. Suddenly, passengers became prisoners on flights, not able to move during the last hour, having to ask permission to go pee like in second grade.

The minutia of the event began to be too much, as did the coverage. Prior, the news only had the fact that the midwest had snow (now there’s breaking news in December), so a real live terrorist attempt certainly spiced up the holiday anchor’s lives.

The coverage, and knee jerk reaction became to much for some, myself included, so it was back to holiday TV. Somehow in the afternoon we all found ourselves watching “The Tale of Despereaux” on cable; the story of an outcast mouse that uses bravery, courage and honor to help a princess (of course). But the movie spoke of Americans, not mice. In the film, Despereaux is an outcast because he’s a mouse that refuses to be afraid. As flash cards are shown in his mouse class, when a cleaver appears, he doesn’t hide and scamper like the others, and simply comments on how they are used to cook. His Peachie has doodles of cats because he thinks they’re cute instead of fearful agents of death. The mouse council doesn’t know what to do. What if he teaches other mice not to fear? After all, “he has to learn how to be afraid, after all, no one is born afraid…” says the mouse leader.

No one is born afraid. Profound words from an animated mouse (and yes, there are OTHER animated mice out there). As I saw the class of mice reacting to the flash cards the cable news, modern day flash cards, came to mind, flashing stories to warm the heart, and then images to terrorize. The problem is, I’m not afraid, no one should be. And America has to decide, are we the society of mice that live behind walls, cowering and scampering when told to, when taught to, or are we Despereaux Tilly, relying on honor, courage, on bravery and wit instead of fear? Because so far, we scamper.

The nation gets attacked by thugs on 9/11, nothing more than an organized gang from Afghanistan, and the nation responds in fear, attacking a country that had nothing to do with the event and killing thousands of innocents, an act that not only does not make the nation any safer but puts it in greater danger. For eight years after that fear and terror was the adminstration’s stock in trade. There were so many color coded terror alerts I had to get a new wardrobe just to make sure I didn’t clash. Wouldn’t want to wear Yellow or Red on an Orange or Green alert day. So many freedoms were handed over in the name of fear they may never be regained and Benjamin Franklin’s head would have exploded.

We had to fear each other for eight years. Fear the evil gays, they may want to get married and then go in to schools and churches and convert you and your children and make them in to a gay. Fear women who want to make medical decisions with their doctors, they may be cold blooded killers of the unborn and must be stopped. Fear anything and anyone different. Fear the illegal immigrants, they’re here to take your jobs and your health care dollars. Fear those Hollywood Liberals or they’ll do terrible things like give you health care and better education. Fear Russia for whatever reason. Fear China not giving us any more money and our incomes drying up. Fear oil running out or the Middle East cutting us off. And most of all, fear the terrorists, because they are, in fact out to get you and you will die.

Fear modified light brights used to promote a movie in Boston and shut down the city (remember the Aqua Teen Hunger Force debacle, that literally caused Boston to panic and nearly evacuate?) Fear a simple plane flying low over your city, as New Yorkers ran like Godzilla was coming out of the Hudson simply because Air Force One was having a photo shoot. Fear each other at airports, as every single person getting on a plane is treated as a potential terrorist, so, they could be, right?

The fact is, American’s run and scamper, like the mice in “Despereaux” every chance they get. Protect us oh mighty government, keep us safe, despite the fact that regular Americans have shown, when faced with real fear, real terror, they shine. They take down the assailant, or the plane. No, the perception is we are victims of this or that, and must be protected.

Well, I, for one, am no one’s victim. As an openly gay man, I learned a long time ago you get to play one role well; either you’re the victim, or not.

I will not fly with the new restrictions unless I absolutely have to. People, even famous ones, get by without air planes and still have lives. Whoopi Goldberg, Aretha Franklin, many won’t fly. Airlines are private businesses. I’m not going to give a company hundreds of dollars so when I get to the airport I can immediately be treated like a potential threat to the world. I’m a 47 year old gay white male, not a threat to anyone these days except those that wish to silence me. I won’t ask permission to access my bag, be strapped to a chair, denied bathroom privileges and nor will I go through one more second of ridiculous screening since it is OBVIOUS it doesn’t work. Next, they’ll want naked Xrays or random cavity searches. Hell, soon, they’ll be cubicles we sit in, the rows on planes the equivalent of small cages, that are locked when you sit down and unlocked when you arrive, for your own safety, of course.

No thank you. I’ll ride my Aprilia Mana 850 where ever and whenever I can. It’s two wheels and fuel economy will speed me along, and anything else, there’s trains, boats, other means, video chat, conference calls, virtual meetings…nope until airlines realize flying should be ENJOYABLE and not like being incarcerated for a few hours, then I’ll opt out as much as possible. And so should you.

And to all of those shouting for MORE regulation, get a grip. It’s all acceptable risk. I mentioned my motorcycle. Each time I ride it, I know that 5000 people a year are killed by drivers that won’t put down their phones. Another 25,000 a year die in other accidents, so about 30,000 people a year die on our roads, more than 100 times any plane crash, and at least 10x more than on 9/11. Each time you get in your car, or me on my motorcycle, we accept the risk that 30,000 of us a year don’t make our destinations ever. Would you fly if 30,000 people a year died on planes? Would you live in a country where 30,000 people a year died at the hands of Al Queada? We know the risks and we do it anyway. Makes the hoopla over flying seem silly.

We know 40,000 people, or 120,000 prior to the 2013 enactment of a weak health care bill, will die from lack of access to proper medical treatment. Not 500 in a catastrophic plane crash, 3000 in an act of terror, 60,000 in a dirty bomb. Nope, 120,000, many children, will cease to exist because they can’t access existing state-of-the-art medical care because they are economic slaves. The real terror of a single person, a mom or a dad, without coverage getting sick or a child needing care exists in this country every minute of every hour and no one springs to help. No knee jerk reaction to 40,000 deaths a year, like universal coverage.

So spare me the fear over terrorism on planes. There’s a lot worse to be afraid of in America and chances of dying or harm far greater from just driving a car or getting sick than from Al Queada.

President Obama was quoted in a speech about this “attempted act of terrorism.” Is it? It’s only a terrorist act if it instills terror. Did it? Not in me. I, for one, am sick and tired of being afraid of a shadow enemy. And as Joe turncoat Lieberman and other talk about the Yemen connection, and how Yemen is the new front in the war on terror, I refuse to bring another Middle Eastern name in to the lexicon of things of which Americans should be afraid. We must fear Iraq and Sadaam Hussein, Iran is part of the Axis of Evil and we should fear nukes they don’t have, fear ‘Lil Kim’s nukes in the North of Korea, Fear the Taliban taking over Pakistan and getting the bomb, or Al Queada in Afghanistan. Fear Israei and Lebanon having a go, fear Hamas, fear oil supply interruption, and now, fear Yemenis that wish to do harm to Americans. Well Joe Lieberman and Obama and everyone else; If Yemen is the leader in the terror front, then why are you sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan? Are you getting it wrong, AGAIN?

News stations want you to be afraid, so you’ll tune in. The government wants you to be afraid so you’ll give them powers, authorities, funding for wars and bombs and such. Evangelicals want you to fear anything not like you. On and on. When is enough enough?

2010 is around the corner. We can start it as those cowering mice, learning each day some new thing to fear, for our own good, of course, or we can say enough! Enough airlines, if you can’t get this right, we just won’t fly. If you can’t make an enjoyable experience where we are all not treated like guilty cattle on our way to slaughter while keeping us as SAFE AS POSSIBLE with accepted risks then forget it. Enough! to our government that thinks they can kill, fight, torture or regulate their way out of future attacks all in our names, for our own good and none of it working.

An Enough! to Americans who have forgotten their spines and allowed private companies or public governments to infringe upon so many of their rights simply because they are afraid. Al Queada doesn’t frighten me as much as a country of people afraid of their own shadows.

If anyone is keeping score, add the Christmas day event to the side of the terrorists, again. They keep winning every time we act so fearful and react so rashly. Their cause is all over the news for days, the name of the terrorist (instead of the name of the passengers that took him down), hell, Al Queda doesn’t need a press agent. Bin Laden farts and the world listens. One maniac goes unhinged and the free world stops, all other news vanishes.

What’s really terrorizing is the fact that while this dominates the news, the chances of any real, meaningful health care reform slips right on by. We’re too afraid to demand universal coverage, single payer, might upset the MINORITY of Republicans. What’s even more terrorizing is the moneyed interests in the country keep talking recovering while millions fall in to poverty ever day without a net.

Many things may harm you in America, but chances are, they’ll be American grown not Al Queda. So man up America, that would be change we could believe in.

Dec

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