17 September 2011
Hello sexy readers.
I want to go to an avian church. That’s right. A church for birds.
Every service would begin with the caw to worship and the pastor proclaiming, “Let osprey.”
Does this wing true?
Lay down your bird-ens
Religion
Church, umbrella and door
8 September 2011
Good evening lovers and loves and precipitous pals.
Earlier today I visited a Unitarian Universalist church for the first time.
I have not been in a church in a very long time.
The same feelings were there, but there was no edge of animosity or overpowering dis-ease.
The place felt downright peaceful. And it was enormous.
The sanctuary seemed incredibly natural and open and felt like a green house.
I later learned a student of Frank Lloyd Wright designed the church and the church even won an architecture award.
Later in the day, my shoes were soggy from the persistent downpour. I squished and squished up to the apartment. I couldn’t tell if my umbrella was weeping or had a slight hole in it. I kept getting wet on my face (especially my right eyebrow).
Here is a picture I enjoy from a house in Alexandria, VA:
A yellow door in front of me
Incensed and impotent
5 September 2011
Good evening all.
I have no real claim to being smart or savvy or really much at all. I’m just a regular human who does some things well and some things poorly.
I say so to acknowledge, once again, that what I share tonight is nothing new or groundbreaking.
My friend shared an article titled, “Goodbye to all that: Reflections of a GOP operative who left the cult.” I finally had a chance to sit down and read the piece and found my heart dying a little more.
I believe in humanity. I really do. More than anything. But I also know some people want power and control no matter the cost. (I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same. But I’ll safely judge for now.)
Politics in the United States are no longer a joke. They are a disaster. A constant battle that is destroying our people and our country. (Please read the piece mentioned above for an actual articulate analysis.)
I still don’t get it. Why do we talk about gay marriage and abortion and immigration and birth certificates? Why do we not all somehow make our way to Washington, DC and stand, yell, sleep and sit in the halls of Congress until insane Republicans and feckless Democrats stop fucking with us?
I will buy as many bus tickets as possible for anyone who wants to come out here. That’s all that I know how to do. Fuck petitions and phone calls.
Idiots who protect their own interests need to see us. See us gather and realize that we fucking elected these fucks. They work FOR us.
I don’t know what to do.
I like this country. I like the opportunities we have. I like our people and I like what we bring. But I think our elected officials, especially Republicans, are fucking us over while convincing us that voting for them is in our best interests.
Waiting for heaven won’t matter if we all have to deal with fucking hell while we’re here.
So, I’ll just remain angry and ineffectual, safe in front of my computer screen, agonizing over an overthrow that I can’t even start.
Equality has not been achieved
15 August 2011
GF and I are watching the HBO documentary Gloria: In Her Own Words.
I don’t understand where we are in the US. Did progress stop? I don’t know. I really don’t have an answer. I do think we have, at least, hit a plateau in women’s equality. I think in many ways, as well, we are moving backward.
For example, how is abortion access still an issue? How can the ERA not exist in the US Constitution? How can so little funding go to day care and education?
The United States of America, as a whole, as a political entity denigrates and despises women. There is absolutely no evidence to the contrary.
Sometimes I hate being a man. I hate belonging to a group of misogynist fucks who are so afraid of everything that the solution is to undermine others.
“We’ve been much too law-abiding and too docile for too long.”
Tether ball
5 August 2011
I was dressed and prepared for work quicker than usual this morning, most likely because “casual Friday” affords me the opportunity to slacks off a bit in my attire.
With the extra time, I scrolled through Twitter to read the latest news and came upon a story about Texas Governor Rick Perry preparing to hold a revival tomorrow “to pray for what he calls ‘a nation in crisis'” according to NPR.
Let me put aside my belief that no one in a governmental leadership position should ever lead by or speak about religious beliefs publicly while in office. (Rick Perry and others calling on God’s guidance to lead public policy is no different, although perhaps worse, than me calling on the spirit of Jacob Marley to lead our economic policy. Either one is beyond poor policy-making.) Let me instead, if you will allow, speak to the fact that Mr. Perry and his ilk are completely off-base with the entire point of their rally.
The US is not in a shit hole because gay people exist, or people have sex outside of heterosexual marriage, or people get divorced, or people are atheist or women can use birth control or hold public office. The US is in a shit hole because we believe in business over humanity. We value corporations more than human life.
I seethe when I read ignorant, damaging rhetoric. Part of it may be a proclivity toward self-affliction casting outward because I used to be dogmatized. I used to walk around and spread the cheer of the Gospel (because only Cheer gets your Gospel whites whiter) and try to convince people to accept Jesus. Maybe that’s the problem. We’d rather have people accept Jesus than accept themselves or each other.
I got a card from my friend today. He wrote the card five years ago, but just mailed it. He mentioned a tethered, oppressed mind. That’s where we are as humans in the US. We are mentally tethered to ideas that are outdated, outmoded and outrageously devastating to our humanity.
The Joseph Richards Show 