What’s the phrase? Nothing’s guaranteed in this life but death and taxes. Something like that. I haven’t done the taxes yet this year, but I know people who met death. And not in one of those Oscar/Emmy/Grammy award show ways where you’re sitting there and say to yourself “oh my, *insert dead person’s name here* died.” Or “I remember that guy/gal” but it really doesn’t strike you like someone that you know personally or whose life you have intersected with. I received a message from one of my cousins in Connecticut. She informed me of the passing of a dear family friend this past Wednesday. He was old, but then again, he was old to me since he and his wife knew me before I was ever born (which is to say they knew my folks in their childless years). His name is Lew. His wife is Evelyn. These people have been involved in my family’s life in one way or another for years. Friends, encouragers, visitors, parishioners. They would baby-sit me when I was a little guy (which you know …was a loooooong time ago). They allowed us to stay with them on occasion when we visited CT from Colorado Springs. And Lew was just a pleasant guy. Friendly, lovable and kind.
When I was last in CT on my way back from Christmas in Maine, my fam and I stopped overnight and went to the church I was born into. After the service, we ran into Evelyn, and she talked about Lew and how he was doing better after spending some time in the hospital. It was nice to see her and hear how he was doing. In those brief moments when I run into people I’ve not see in some time, I often in a split second go over notable events in my mind in which I was involved with them. And on that day, it was no different. I can’t for the life of me say what I was thinking of then, but as I read the note of his passing today, I think of several things. I think of the garden he had in the backyard of his house. It always had green leafy lettuce growing in it. There were the times where he and his wife would take me to the park. Center Park was really neat. It had some of the biggest see-saws I’d ever seen (mind you this was when I was a small child) and a great swing set. And it was a cool place to fly a kite if you couldn’t make it to Wickham Park. I suppose I’ll be having more of these moments in years to come. I’ll get an email from a friend or relation to tell me that so-and-so died. And I will most likely be genuinely sad for the loss of someone that I knew from my childhood or later in life or someplace in time where the strings that get attached to all the people I intersect with is snapped in two and I am holding a broken string and have a heart full of memories. I pray that they will be good ones.

And now for something completely different….

I was at an Oscar party on Sunday night. And being a fan of pop culture, I was interested in seeing who would show up and who would wear what and would they were demure clothing or really ostentatious outfits. No… that is not exactly true. I was really interested in seeing if anyone would speak out of the left side of their mouth when they got the opportunity, and how would the audience respond. It is funny to me how on a Saturday night is would be more acceptable to speak your mind and voice your approval against bush/war/bush, but on the very next night be booed off the stage. Now, I actually remember watching Michael Moore’s TV show back in the early 90’s called TV Nation. The point of the show was to take shots at big business and the terrible things they do. It was smart television. It was challenging television. It got cancelled. I don’t hate Moore, I just happen to disagree with him politically on most issues. Did he deserve to be booed off the stage on Sunday at the Oscars? You’re damn skippy he did. He didn’t say anything new, or challenging, or cutting edge, and it didn’t make for good TV. He didn’t change any minds that may have been teetering on the fence about supporting the war or President Bush and push them over the edge on one side or the other. You get 45 seconds on stage before the band plays on, and the pretty girl escorts you off stage. He blathered on about an election irregularity from 2 years ago.

Guess what?

It’s over jackass!!!

And making your voice heard on that topic is 2 years to late.

My biggest problem with what he said was not exactly the word he spoke but the message behind them. If I was a soldier in Kuwait/Iraq/Qatar/on a ship, I’d kick in my TV cuz he doesn’t seem to care that my ass is on the line to defend his freedoms and securities. He has more money than most people will ever see in their lives. He has a great job and is doing something he loves which is more than most people can say about their jobs. So what does he do??? He spat on the face of every US soldier standing post right now. I am sure some soldiers don’t want to be fighting in a war, but no one twisted their arm to join, nor did anyone put a gun to their head either. I believe that the government should be kept honest, and asked tough questions, but not at the expense of those who VOLUNTEER to defend her. I support his right to disagree with it, to protest it, to make a movie about it. But only as long as he realises that his freedom has been bought by the blood of those who died fighting for and defending this Republic. Your 45 seconds are up and as Steve Martin said: “the teamsters are helping him into the trunk of his limo.”

NP: Sam Shaber - All Right: "Eldorado"
- posted by TundraBoy @ 5:23 PM