Statistically

Fact. Statistically, an American is more likely to be shot by a 5 year old than by a terrorist. Fact. More Americans will be killed in a few months in Chicago the will be killed by terrorists in a few years. So if we're going save lives by extreme vetting of Muslims, we'd better also do extreme vetting of gun owners.

Hunger

Trump's spiritual advisor was quoted as saying that Trump has a "hunger for God." Personally, I think he has a hunger to be God.

What to do?

This is a time for action not reaction. But before action, reflection is necessary for me?
What should I do?
How is the best way to use my energy and skills?
What actions will only be sucked dry by the system?
What actions can have any impact on the system?
Do I have a strategy?
Am I clear about my own values?
Am I ready to be tested?
Do I have clear ends in mind?
In the political context, these are all new to me.

The art ride

Art starts with the artist and whatever s/he is compelled to put into the piece--heart, soul, intellect, personal experience, vision. Making a work of art is a ride, with its bumps, spills, frights and thrills. For the artist the ride means more than its end. The work of art succeeds in an important way if it communicates the memory and impact of the ride.

Contemporary art

Contemporary art can't be managed, contained, categorized, taught or brought under control. It's silly, profound. formal, activist, personal, universal, self-indulgent, honest, quirky, whimsical, indicting, messy, political, searing. If you have an open mind, it's a playground of imagination and ideas in time and space, a parade of visions of humanity trying to define itself in its own time. Give it a try.

Jumping on the Trump family bandwagon

I'm just going to jump on the Trump family bandwagon. For my next opening I'll fly in my personal masseuse to relax me. I'll call my favorite personal designer to create me an outfit that is trendy and edgy but not too showy. I'll get my personal barber to help me decide whether to go bald or one-eight inch. And, of course, as a nod to the ladies, I'll wear my new unisex alligator boots. Can't wait.

Gobbling it up

In Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, unchecked ego and the lust for power have gobbled up justice and compassion and spit them back in the face of the disenfranchised.

It's frightening to think that America could be next. Vigilance and courage, even in the smallest amounts, are absolutely necessary.

The ostrich with its head in a hole

At halftime of any televised major league or college sports event, we have 15 minutes of coverage of just one half of one game. How often had television offered 15 minutes of coverage of a poverty in America? Before each game television gives us a half hour of pregame blather. How often do we get a half hour of coverage of issues related to climate change.

Then of course the parade of awards shows and reality shows and the occasional PBS documentary on an important social issue. More still, the same half hour of time given to world news as to entertainment news.

What would really make America great again is to get our ostrich heads out of the hole of sports and entertainment and be informed and active citizens.

Justice / love

Humans have unlocked amazing possibilities in the physical universe through science and technology. But it seems more and more that we have made little progress in unlocking the secrets of the human heart and conscience. Do we really know how to use love to improve the human condition? Are we really committed to the task of making justice real?

In this world, love often seems impotent or not much more than greeting card sentiments. Justice under the law is hard enough. Justice beyond the law, reaching for human dignity, seems impossible.

Capitalism

Capitalism makes for material comfort, but it steals the soul and replaces it with lots of merchandise.

Trump's Inaugural Speech

Trump’s Inaugural Address was a puffed up campaign speech, full of big promises, little nuance and no hint of how-to or real compassion. He will get rid of politicians, the same ones who created the laws that allowed him to escape bankruptcy laws and pay no taxes and the ones who thwarted Obama’s vision of hope at every turn. He will replace lawmakers with billionaires, the ones who have screwed workers and bought the politicians. He will work for all Americans, as evidenced by the homogeneity of the inaugural audience. He will create new jobs as he did for the workers who lost their casino jobs in Atlantic City. He will care about poor and middle class Americans as he did the students of Trump University and the African Americans he kept out of his rental properties. He will keep jobs in America like he did with his and his daughter’s fashion merchandise made over seas. He will keep American money in America like the probable billions his billionaire friends have stashed tax free in the Cayman Islands.

NEA

Donald Trump wants to completely eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. It's not because of money, for its budget is frustratingly small. It's because art lives up to its role of piercing the complacent, demanding a conversation, tackling the world with honesty and courage and not backing off. A Trump government couldn't face that.

The swamp

Enough voters were frustrated with government and lawmakers that they voted Donald Trump in the White House. Now we will be governed by billionaire businessmen. You know, the ones who screw workers and buy Congressmen.

If the swamp gets drained, it will only be filled with a bigger, more voracious breed of alligator.

Justice for all

God asked me to pass along his/her annual grades for human progress toward justice for all.

Effort:                        leaders D            ordinary citizens C

Accomplishments:    leaders F             ordinary citizens C
Progress:                   leaders F             ordinary citizens C

Elite

I'm tired of the elite of wealth and celebrity. Point me to the elite of honesty and integrity.

Spectacle

Packed sports stadiums. Rock concerts. Awards shows. Festivals.

We spend way too much time on spectacle induced mania.

Barach Obama

As the inauguration of Donald Trump approaches, we must not forget that we are leaving behind a thoughtful, funny, compassionate and articulate man. A man who can cry and sing publicly and still maintain his stature. A man who worked tirelessly against the rigid and stubborn wall of partisanship in Washington. A man whose family represented the epitome of Christian family values. A man who carried the burden of his race into the White House with integrity and grace.

Love

I've come to believe that love is not an instinct we are born with. It's something we are attracted to in our helplessness and neediness and acquire through the compassion of others and our own hard work.

I'm back from a little trip...a poem

A child
A kiss
A sigh
A scream
A loss
A gift
A song
A death
A light

A prediction

After the January 20 swearing in, I predict Donald Trump will have an orgasm every time someone calls him Mr. President.

Tweech

I have never encountered a speech by Donald Trump which is thoughtful, coherent and competent on an important issue. Have you?

I guess we'll just have to settle for a "tweech."

News in America

TV networks devote the same amount of time to world news as to entertainment news. And sometimes the news overlaps.

If you are a pleasant to look at celebrity, you must be smart.

To be a network news reporter you must now have abs, pecs and a shirt with the first couple of buttons unbuttoned.

All you need to know about an issue can be condensed into a sound bite.

News anchors can't decide whether to sit down or stand up to read the news.

Too much in depth reporting on important issues can easily kill ratings.

All the terrible news can be balanced by one uplifting pet or kid story.

The DTs

For Donald Trump, tweets are not just convenient. 140 characters represent the depth of his understanding.

Sadly, Donald Trump thinks and opinion is a policy.

After Donald Trump is sworn in, he will get an orgasm every time someone calls him Mr. President.

Short story starters

Having trouble starting your short story? Try one of these.

The minute I gave my penis a mythological name, my life changed. Now my future would be what I had always dreamed it would be.

The gun recoiled and the dark figure fell to the pavement in agonizing pain. She pulled off his hood and screamed.

The CEO was sitting at his desk when a naked woman walked in and handed him the package. He opened it and quickly began to undress.

The cockroach, big even Southern standards and missing a leg, crawled across the floor and stopped near his foot. Should he squash the hell out of it or make it a pet?

High and drunk, he jumped into the van and just started driving, not knowing that one of the neighbor’s kids was asleep in the back.  Three states later he found himself in a cheap motel with a 5-year old.

Who gets pregnant on prom night? Dumb, unprepared, horny ex-cheerleaders, that’s who.

How did he ever become an ostrich farmer, he asked himself. His wife had asked that same question a year ago when she ran off with his accountant.

As a first born, you have to show up, stand up, cough up and buck up. Hell no he said, and began a life that was unfathomable to his family.

She knew she would not be able to use her body to her advantage forever. But for the time being, she was workin’ it.

The alligator bit his leg; the surgeon cut it off. The gator was just doing what gators do, but he was determined to take revenge.

Love and sex

The sex drive is a gift of evolution. The love drive is a gift of culture. Sex is an instinct even when culture perverts it. Love could not be love until there was language sufficient to make sense of it.

Love, like sex, is also perverted by culture. Is sex love? Is love sex? Is sex beyond love? Does love grow from sex or sex from love? We've spent our whole history as humans trying to answer questions like these in poetry, dance, images, music. Any transitional answers seem always at the mercy of changing culture.

Still, we can ask what the world would be like if the love drive were as strong as the sex drive.

Stories

Humans love stories. We use them to make sense of the world. Love stories, myths, history, legends, tales of family. Even the big bang and the evolution of life are stories.

Good stories, like all stories, will stop, but they don't end. They leap into our consciousness and keep on going.

Assume

Assume everything is sacred.

2017

Dive headlong into 2017, and let your good ripples extend as far as possible.