Thoughts Internal: Opus VII

“...Dems fightin’ words....”

Well now, it seems like the Democrats may be getting a little bit of a backbone after all. The other day, the Obama-Biden campaign released a video discussing the Charles Keating savings & loan scandal from the 80’s. Please feel free to have a look at Keating Economics & John McCain's Judgement. It looks like our clean-cut (and articulate) candidate is ready to sling a little mud.

WELL IT’S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!!!

Whew...had to get that out of my system. If any of you democrats remember the past two elections, our candidates have tended to be straight up PUNKS! Hell, I’ll take you back to Dukakis -- WIMP! Gore was no better and Kerry allowed the RepubliKKKans to convince folks that he wasn’t for the military!!!! This man’s record was impeccable.

But, I digress....

Between all the hub-bub being created by Tina Fey’s portrayals of Sarah Palin (see Tina Fey does Sarah Palin), the RollingStone article (see Make-Believe Maverick) and now this new video, one can only hope that the word and the POINT is getting out there: McCain is bad for America and Palin is even worse!

I’m not really clear as to why this is a close race even with all the closet American racism out there. I mean damn! Your choice is a man whose very opportunistic ideals had him embroiled in the second biggest economic scandal in U.S. history (yup, this craziness going on now finally took the title). Or, you can go with the junior Senator who’s been about the people! He’s intelligent, virtually scandal-free, and so damn clean that even some white folks had to question if he was BLACK ENOUGH (now, that was RACIST). Seriously folks, why is this even a contest? He chose as a running mate a governor from a state that most of us only think about when we’re ordering crab legs. If McCain thinks that his drilling mantra would have benefited by having the governor on his ticket, then he’s dumber than his wife looks! This man is really a different version of Bush. He had his freewheeling days in the Naval Academy. He benefited from daddy and granddaddy cleaning up his messes. But, he has even managed to manipulate the media to (almost) Karl Rove levels.

Are we really that confused America?

We have about a month of partisan speeches, mud slinging, and rhetoric before we head to the polls to choose the leader of the free world (man, I would love to know who coined that phrase). U can go with the maverick and his sidekick OR you can go with proven leadership, an agent of change and experience (Biden doesn’t just bring his feisty tongue to the ticket).

But of course, the choice is YOURS!!!!!!

Stay tuned....

Thoughts Internal: Opus VI

The Fucked Up Things People Say

There’s our topic for the night (or morning). I’ve managed to go through these decades allowing some of the most, for lack of a better way to put it, FUCKED UP things to be said to me. I don’t know if people have said them with some kind of silent malice or maybe they were attempting to be straight up nasty, but I was left wondering what it was that I did to warrant such comments.

There’s nothing like people who say things like, “Wow, I can’t believe YOU’RE getting married. My goodness. If you can do it, then I know I can do it!” Yeah, so in what bizarro world is this a compliment? It’s a purely backhanded compliment, at the very least. Yet, I don’t see it that way at all. It’s a FUCKED UP THING TO SAY! You can dance around it all day long. When you finally come around to evaluating a statement like that, you’ll reach the same conclusion.

Now....

Can I say that these comments are made by people whom I consider enemies? No. Can I somehow attribute these comments to drunken stupor or moments of herbal-induced madness? No. These folks are typically sane. They say what they say with a straight face. Sometimes, it’s said face to face, over the telephone, via text message, through email, by proxy, or even smoke signal.

And....

I have said nothing to these folks. Nope, not one word. I’ve sat silently, passive-aggressive behavior on full. Feel free to say whatever you want to me and I guess I’ll continue allowing you to.

Well....

Those days are over. It’s been a bit too long. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Acquaintances, associates, friends, really good friends, and even best friends are on notice. I am not taking any more shit!

But wait, it gets better....

Planning a wedding and deciding who you want there becomes an interesting task in practice. I wrote a blog a while back when the thought of getting married was just a distant thought, a distant possibility. Well, it’s October 4, 2008. The shit is real now. I’ve had to make some tough decisions regarding invites. How do you not invite a friend you’ve known for 30 years and invite someone you’ve know for 3 years? How do you cut an aunt and keep her child? Tight budgets and paying out of your own pocket bring very real truths to bear: everybody can’t be happy. Hell, everybody AINT GONNA BE HAPPY!

I recently re-read a response to Opus IV by a friend of mine. She recanted her original statement but it made an impression on me. It’s true. Some friends will not be invited and they will take umbrage and may feel a little less important in my life. And, I have to admit. I was briefly worried about this, but then I gave it some more thought. I’ve had many friends get married; I didn’t attend all of their weddings. I didn’t let the lack of an invitation diminish my feelings of friendship for them. I was happy for them regardless. You see, in my fucked up world, I believe that when you’re truly happy for someone, all that doesn’t matter. Thankfully, my friend sang a different tune in a later response. I think my anger would have found its way into an argument between us.

I used to think that it was my duty to make sure my friends became my fiancé’s friends. It’s not. If she introduces me to a man or woman whom I don’t like, I would like to believe that she’d recognize this contempt and not push the issue. We can’t like everyone. I’ve tried to force this issue with several different people at various times in my life with different significant others. I’ve always found that people have tried to assert their perceived importance in my life. I had a rather big argument with a sista about 5 years ago about this very topic. She couldn’t quite understand why one friend of mine was able to visit whenever and why I would rearrange my schedule to accommodate these visits. However, when it came to her (the self-professed important person), such concessions were never made.

You Aint Her!!!!

This seems like a pretty simple concept but some folks don’t get it. To quote a basketball aphorism, “Play Your Position!”

Nuff said.

Now let me go through my email archives and find some more examples of fucked up things said to me. I may have to shout those people out by name to make the next installment more interesting!!

Goodnight :-)